Novak Djokovic shows true colours with 'disrespectful' Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal view

Novak Djokovic has explained that he refuses to get involved in the tennis GOAT debate because it would be "disrespectful" to Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, and the legends that came before them. The Serbian superstar is the undisputed greatest when it comes to the numbers - he has 24 Grand Slam titles, he's spend 428 weeks at No. 1, and he's won virtually everything in the sport.

However, Djokovic refused to declare himself, or any other player, as the greatest during an appearance on Piers Morgan Uncensored. The current world No. 4 believes that it's "not his place" and, more importantly, it's difficult to compare himself with players from other eras.

The British broadcaster was more than happy to name Djokovic the 'Greatest of all Time' in tennis, but the 38-year-old had his own response when quizzed over the GOAT debate and his place among the sport's other champions.

"I've been asked this question quite a bit, particularly lately in the last several years, because obviously there's a lot of stats that people play with and they do comparisons between Nadal, Federer and myself, primarily because of our numbers. Grand Slams won, tournaments won, weeks spent at No. 1 in the world, et cetera," the current world No. 4 started.

"My answer is quite consistent when it comes to overall, general discussion on the greatest of all time, and I'm going to say it again, which is, I'm not going to say whether I'm the greatest or not because it's not my position to say that, and I would say that that would be very disrespectful towards the generations that have paved the way for me, Nadal, Federer, and all the others. It's so hard to compare eras."

Djokovic went on to explain that advancements in technology and sports science made it easier for the current generation of tennis players to be more professional and go the extra mile in bettering their performance and recovery.

In comparison, the likes of Bjorn Borg, Rod Laver and John McEnroe - who Djokovic all mentioned - didn't win as many Grand Slam titles as he, Federer and Nadal managed to.

Morgan pointed out that Djokovic has won dozens of titles across all three surfaces, but the 38-year-old again argued that it was something modern tennis "required" him to do.

He continued: "Going back to the '80s, you have three out of four Grand Slams played on grass, and now the grass is the least-played-on surface, it's one month a year and it used to be the predominant surface on the tour.

"So the game has evolved a lot, you used to have 90 per cent of the players only up to maybe the '90s or maybe even the late '90s, early 2000s that would play serve-and-volley, and would switch from wooden rackets to graphite rackets and then obviously move into more lighter and refined materials.

"With these kinds of materials, you would be able to play from the baseline with more control, with more accuracy, with more precision. That wasn't the case with more robust materials like wood, graphite, because it allowed you to serve well with good speed but then you didn't have many players playing with a lot of spin."

Although Djokovic didn't single anyone out in the GOAT debate, he also thought that Borg would have had a better record had he not retired at the age of 26, having played his last tournament at 25.

"Bjorn Borg was the first one that stayed back. He would come in, but he stayed back a lot, and that would confuse quite a lot of players, hence his incredible career and achievements. We would probably be sitting down today and talking about Borg being the greatest if he kept going. He retired when he was 26 and he won 11 Grand Slams," he added.

The Olympic champion still feels honoured and privileged to be part of the discussion - but he wants to leave that discussion to others. For now, Djokovic is still adding to his trophy cabinet, as he lifted his 101st career title in Athens over the weekend.