No bonus points for past greatness, as Djokovic dominates Nadal
If this 60th match was indeed their last dance together, it might have been nice if Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal had danced a little longer.
Their second-round duel in the Olympic men’s singles tournament required just one hour and 43 minutes: a sprint compared with some of their past marathons.
Much of it was one-way traffic with Djokovic doing the directing and prevailing 6-1, 6-4 despite a spirited Nadal fightback in the second set.
But then that is the cruel beauty of tennis. There are no bonus points for past greatness, no concessions made to what used to be once the ball is in play. There is no place to hide, not even for Nadal on the same patch of red clay where he has won a record 14 French Open singles titles, more than double what any other man has managed.
The Philippe Chatrier Court has long felt like a home away from home for Nadal, a proud Spaniard from Majorca. But it must have felt more foreign than familiar as Djokovic bullied him and rushed him, expertly delivering magnificent two-handed backhands, carving winning drop shots, pouncing on short balls and giving geometry lessons to the former king of clay.
For much of this short match, Djokovic seemed a full step ahead, figuratively and literally.
Nadal, at 38, is not the intimidating speedster of yore. Others have exploited that change since Nadal returned to the circuit this year after missing nearly all of the 2023 season because of hip surgery.
Djokovic, who had not played Nadal since losing in the 2022 French Open quarterfinals, certainly took note and executed the revised game plan respectfully but ruthlessly. He deprived Nadal of time to get organised; of time to get his feet planted.
“I was just very proud to be part of this match,” Djokovic said. “And I of course wanted to do my job on the court and really execute the game plan as much as I possibly can and not give him time, because if you give him time he can hurt you. We know that. I’ve experienced that in the past.”
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Nadal’s whipping forehand has not only been his trademark but is now memorialised in a grand stainless steel statue of Nadal inside the main entrance to Roland Garros.
Yet this, despite the address, is not the French Open. This is the Olympics: best-of-three sets instead of best-of-five with music – some of it incongruous - on the changeovers and with fans who might never have seen Nadal or Djokovic in the flesh.
Even the name of the center court here has new meaning: Chatrier, a Frenchman who was president of the French Tennis Federation and International Tennis Federation, was instrumental in bringing the Olympics back into the Games as a full-medal sport in 1988.
Nadal, a former youth soccer star who has long enjoyed being part of a team, has taken full advantage of Chatrier’s initiative: winning singles gold in Beijing in 2008 and doubles gold with Marc Lopez in Rio in 2016.
In Beijing, he defeated Djokovic in the semi-finals en route to the title. But Djokovic has now evened their Olympic head-to-head at one victory apiece and taken a perhaps insurmountable 31-29 lead in their overall rivalry.
“I would say there’s probably even more tension playing him in the Olympic Games,” Djokovic said. “Just because there is that element of representing your country and being part of the Olympic Games, which is so rare. It happens every four years. So you could feel the tension coming into the match, but also incredible hype and incredible atmosphere on the court.”
The Chatrier Court was packed, full of “Vamos Rafa” and “Nole GOAT” banners and Spanish and Serbian flags. The large press area could not accommodate all the media who made their way to Roland Garros for what could be the last Djokovic-Nadal match.
“Of course it can be,” Djokovic said. “But we don’t know that. It really depends on many different factors and depends on whether both of us will keep going, and whether we participate in the same tournaments or not. I think we both want to play in Grand Slams and the biggest tournaments. I will speak on my behalf. I will be very selective with the tournaments I play. I just hope for the sake of our rivalry and the sport in general we get to face each other once or different times on different surfaces in different parts of the word, because it can only benefit the sport. But I don’t know how he feels in his body, what his plans are. Let’s hope he can play some more.”
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No men have faced each other more often in singles in the Open era that began in 1968. Players like Rod Laver and Ken Rosewall dueled more often in the barnstorming professional era, changing cities and venues night after night on their lengthy tours. But Nadal and Djokovic have set the standard for a men’s rivalry in the modern era, playing more often than Nadal and Roger Federer or Djokovic and Federer; much more often than Bjorn Borg and John McEnroe, or Pete Sampras and Andre Agassi, or Boris Becker and Stefan Edberg.
Together, Nadal and Djokovic have delivered some of the greatest matches in the sport’s long history: none grander than the final of the 2012 Australian Open where Djokovic prevailed after nearly six hours of tennis attrition, ripping his shirt from his body in release and celebration and then, like Nadal, struggling to stand for the awards ceremony.
They have played classics at Roland Garros, too: the 2013 semi-final that Nadal won 9-7 in the fifth set and the 2021 semi-final that Djokovic won in four sets after prevailing in a tiebreaker in a marathon third.
That set alone lasted one hour and 31 minutes: nearly as long as the entirety of Monday’s anticlimactic duel in the sun. But it could have been over quite a bit more quickly. Djokovic led 6-1, 4-0 before he dipped and Nadal lifted, recovering from two breaks of serve to even the second set at 4-4.
“Almost a perfect match to 6-1, 4-0, and then things got complicated,” Djokovic said. “I started to hesitate a little bit on my shots, and the crowd got involved. At 4-all, it was really anybody’s set, anybody’s game.”
A lesser player might have panicked or pressed at that noisy stage. But Djokovic, as Djokovic does, gathered himself, ignored the “Rafa, Rafa, Rafa” soundtrack and applied heavy pressure to Nadal’s serve. At 15-30, Nadal edgily missed a forehand despite having time, berating himself as it sailed wide with his fist clenched. He recovered, saving three break points, but he could not save the fourth as Djokovic capitalized again on Nadal’s lack of depth to hit a backhand drop shot winner that Nadal was never close to reaching.
It was 5-4 with Djokovic to serve, and at 30-30, Nadal did what vintage Nadal would likely have never done: missed a backhand return off a second serve to give Djokovic match point without a tussle.
Djokovic took the hint: smacking an ace on the line to close out the victory and advance to the round of 16.
“It’s simple, one player was much better than the other,” Nadal said. “For an hour, it was tough to digest what was happening. I wasn’t able to play at the level I needed to create problems for him, I didn’t have the quality of shot I needed, and I also don’t have the same legs I had 15 years ago.”
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Djokovic, the top seed here with Jannik Sinner’s withdrawal, will next face Dominik Koepfer of Germany. At age 36, Djokovic is chasing the last major title that has eluded him.
He has the edge over his Golden Age rivals in most categories: head-to-head, weeks at No. 1, Grand Slam titles and Masters 1000 titles won. But he trails in the Olympic department. Andy Murray and Nadal have won two golds. Roger Federer has one, acquired with Stan Wawrinka in doubles in 2008.
Djokovic, a champion who makes his goals public, is still in the hunt to join them and is competing in just one event here in Paris, channeling all his energy and ambition into the singles.
But though Nadal waved goodbye to the crowd in the Chatrier Court on Monday, this was not farewell. He will be back on Tuesday for the second round of men’s doubles with Carlos Alcaraz, the 21-year-old who routed Djokovic 15 days ago in London to complete the French Open-Wimbledon double.
It is unclear whether Nadal will play singles again at Roland Garros. The next chance won’t come until next May: 10 months from now.
“When this tournament is over, I will make the decisions I need to make,” Nadal said. “I can’t be thinking all day long about whether this is my farewell in Paris. I am coming back from two very difficult years with many physical problems. I haven’t been able to get continuity. I have given myself some extra time to see if I can recover, but I cannot spend my time thinking every day if this is it or not.”
For now, what is certain is that he has more Olympic tennis to play.