On Wednesday at the Western and Southern Open in Cincinnati, conversation turned to Roger Federer during Novak Djokovic’s press conference. Naturally, having played Federer 40 times (Federer and Djokovic have met more than any pair of ATP players in history), the Serb knows a thing or two about the subject of  Federer. He’s compiled a lot of notes since their first meeting in Monte-Carlo in 2006.

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Rather than cut out any of Djokovic’s words, we’re just going to run the press transcript in its entirety on this one. In case you were of the notion that there’s not a lot of respect between these two rivals, we think Djokovic’s words pretty much tell the story on that.

Q. You played Roger for many years and you've played him in Grand Slam finals for many years. Do you feel any sort of sense of slippage or changes in his game throughout these years? Do you feel like he's coming forward more than he was when you were playing him.

NOVAK DJOKOVIC: Yes, he definitely is coming more forward to the net and trying to shorten the points. He does so well. He does so well, and he obviously had to, you know, make some tactical changes and kind of adjust to the new generation of players.

I think Murray, myself, Nadal, we all have pretty good returns and baseline game, and, you know, good passing shots. I think he's trying to mix things up. He still plays very, very good. I'm sure he's going to give a better answer of how he feels now compared to maybe 10 years ago, but he definitely does feel, still, very confident on the court.

He's still very dominant. He's reaching final stages of the Grand Slams and big events. You know that he's always going to play on a high level, so he always makes you work for your win. His forehand is still out there as one of the best weapons he's got. He has a very precise serve and chips the slice, comes to the net, and takes away your time.

The guys, including myself that I mentioned in the mix, don't really like too much when we don't have much time. I think that's what he knows tactically he's trying do. He's got this great variation in his game, this great talent, and all round game.

He can basically play defense, offense, whatever he wants. I think that's what allows him to stay that long in top of the men's game all these years.