Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal are going head to head for the 60th and possibly final time in the second round at Paris 2024.
Novak Djokovic and Rafa Nadal are great friends, but that hasn’t always been the case. The pair will undoubtedly go down as two of the greatest players to ever pick up a racket, and their on-court rivalry is the longest and arguably finest in the Open Era.
It all began nearly two decades after the soon-to-be famed team broke onto the scene within a couple of years of each other during the mid-00s. Ahead of one of their first meetings, Djokovic says he got “p****d off” with Nadal after the Spaniard went through his pre-match ritual just a few feet away from him.
“I’m playing against Nadal at Roland Garros, and his dressing area is adjacent to mine, right? very we are very close,” the Serbian told CBS last year. “We try to give each other room. But then the dressing room isn’t that huge either.
“And the way you leap about, like Nadal, before we go out on the court… In the changing room, he’s doing sprints next to you. I can even hear the music he’s listening to, you know, in his headphones. You know, that annoys me,” he added.
The 24-time Grand Slam champion claimed he let such sorts of things get to him when he was younger, but eventually learned to tune the mind games out, and sometimes even utilize them to his advantage.
“At the beginning of my career, I didn’t know how it was all part of the script, right? So I was terrified about that,” he remarked. “But it also encourages me to do things myself and prove that I’m ready, you know? I’m ready for fight, for war.”
Djokovic, 37, and Nadal, 38, will be going toe-to-toe in the second round of the Paris Olympics on July 29, in what will be the 60th and potentially final clash between them. Djokovic has the tiniest of edges on his Spanish adversary, however a victory for Nadal would, rather poetically, see them tied on 30 wins each.
Before their meeting was confirmed, Djokovic stated the match will be “a spectacle.”. He said: “We’ll spread some fireworks on the court, like in the good old days. I hope we get to meet, because it will probably be one last dance for the both of us.” Nadal, meanwhile, was keen to play down thoughts of it being their farewell encounter. “Who says [it’s the] last dance?” he asked one reporter.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, he also indulged in some pre-match mind games after insisting Djokovic was the heavy favourite to win the tie. “Situations are absolutely different for him, for me. He’s being quite competitive. I was not being very competitive for the last two years, so in that case, I believe certainly he is the clear favourite,” Nadal said.
“I’m going to try my best to bring the best to the court and then let’s see how far I can go and how many problems I can create for him.” Cautious remarks aside, the playing surface benefits Nadal, who has an 8-2 head-to-head record against Djokovic on clay. Then again, Djokovic’s form at Rolland Garros is good, with the Serb having won the French Open twice in the past four years.
The two had faced each other at the Olympics once previously, with Nadal beating Djokovic in the semi-finals at the 2008 Beijing Games, before going on to beat Fernando Gonzalez in the final. Djokovic, meanwhile, has never won Olympic gold.
