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Rafael Nadal vs. Novak Djokovic has been the final of 29 different tennis tournaments, including all four Grand Slams. At the 2024 Paris Olympics, it will be a second-round match.
Nadal opened his Olympic singles campaign with a 6-1, 2-6, 6-4 victory over Hungary’s Marton Fucsovics at the familiar Roland Garros on Sunday, setting up a clash that has not been played before a quarter-final for 15 years.
The only other time the two men have met before the round of 16 of a tournament, not counting the round robins, was at the 2009 Davis Cup. Typically, their high seeds prevent them from meeting in the early rounds, but Nadal’s recent injuries left him unseeded for the tournament, allowing him to face his Serbian counterpart.
The two men thus found themselves in adjacent matches on the draw. Djokovic got the job done Saturday, winning 6-0, 6-1 against Australian Matthew Ebden, a doubles player who entered the singles draw as an injury substitute despite not having played an official singles match in two years.
Nadal was matched against Fucsovics, who is ranked 83rd in the ATP rankings. But even though Nadal was playing on his favorite surface (clay) at his favorite venue (Roland Garros), his injuries did not guarantee that he would be able to beat Fucsovics. Nadal only confirmed his presence in the singles at the last second.
At first, there was nothing to worry about. Nadal didn’t look hurt and easily won the first set 6-1 in just 31 minutes. But we saw a different Nadal in the second set. All the energy and aggression from the first set was gone. He allowed Fucsovics to control the match and missed some huge balls, and had to fight to stay in the match while Fucsovics kept winning.
Early in the second set, Nadal finally found his rhythm. Trailing 4-1 at one point, he won three of the next four games to improve to 5-4 and was close to leveling at 5-5. But the unforced errors were piling up for Nadal, and he couldn’t play cleanly enough to prevent Fucsovics from winning his sixth game and the second set.
Nadal found some of his first-set magic in the third. He was more energetic and responsive, and while he continued to struggle with his serve, he cleaned up the unforced errors and looked fully focused. Despite a double fault in his final service game, he managed to force Fucsovics into one last error to win the game, the set and the match.
Nadal is also very busy in doubles, where he has teamed up with Carlos Alcaraz to form a star-studded Spanish team. An injury raised concerns that Nadal would not be able to handle the workload in singles, but he has remained in the team.
What does this mean for Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic?
The next round match will not be the last of Nadal’s brilliant career, but it could very well be his last meeting with Djokovic.
At 38 and having struggled with constant injuries over the past two years, Nadal is expected to retire soon. In another world, the opportunity to play on the court where he won a record 14 French Open titles would have been tempting, but Nadal has already said he would like to compete at this year’s Laver Cup in September.
After that, it is difficult to say how many more events he will participate in.
This match also gives Nadal a chance to tie his career record against Djokovic if he wins. Djokovic currently leads their meeting with a 30-29 record, having first met at Roland Garros in 2006. Given how often the two players will find themselves in GOAT contention over the next century, that’s no small feat.
For Djokovic, beating Nadal is always a plus, but the biggest prize is at the back of the draw. Nadal is the only member of the Nadal-Djokovic-Roger Federer trio to have won an Olympic singles gold medal, and Djokovic is trying to join him. Nadal also won a doubles gold medal in 2016 with Marc López, while Federer won gold with Stanislas Wawrinka in 2008.
Djokovic’s only Olympic medal was a bronze in Beijing in 2008, where he lost to Nadal.
