Roger Federer has revealed how Rafael Nadal would give him support during his injury recovery this year. Federer hasn’t played a competitive match since exiting the Australian Open at the semi-final stage in January. The Swiss great underwent two knee operations which kept him out of the remainder of the 2020 season.

During Federer’s time away from the game, Nadal equalled his record of 20 men’s Grand Slam singles titles by landing his 13th French Open crown.

But Federer has explained how the two old rivals would often keep in touch with each other.

The 39-year-old says Nadal would endeavour to find out how he was during his recovery.

“I talked a lot with Rafael Nadal,” Federer told Schweizer Illustrierte.

“Because we are on the Players’ Council, we had to keep talking to each other: What is best for the sport? How can we bring it forward?

“We also called during the tough lockdown in Spain. And he asked me how I was doing after the operation.”

Federer says he missed travelling around the world and meeting up with friends and family, despite initially being happy to stay at home due to the coronavirus pandemic.

He added: “At first, I was happy to just stay longer in Switzerland, but at some point we realized that we were missing our friends, those from London, New York or Paris.