Nadal defeated Daniil Medvedev in the men’s final of the Australian Open to surpass Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic, each of whom have won 20 Grand Slams each. The 35-year-old who clinched his second Australian Open title on January 30 said, “I think we have always been respectful with each other.”

“We understood the rivalry in a positive way through our careers and, yeah, I received plenty of messages. I am sorry I have not been able to answer everyone as you can imagine but, yeah, I really feel proud about the way we manage our rivalry through our careers. At the end of the day, it’s just a game, in some ways we achieved more than what we dreamed as kids,”