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Serbian tennis player Novak Djokovic dominated Spaniard Rafael Nadal in what is likely their last match in the illustrious careers of these two top athletes, winning 2-0 in sets.
On the Parisian clay where Rafael Nadal has won a total of 14 titles at Roland Garros, the Spaniard now suffered the heaviest defeat in his long career, indicating that despite coming back from two breaks down in the second set, it might be time for retirement.
Nadal has been struggling with injuries for a long time, and there was even doubt whether he would compete in singles at the Paris Olympics. In the end, he managed to muster the strength and defeated Marton Fucsovics in the first round, but in the second, Djokovic was superior and deservedly celebrated a great victory.
In the second game of the first set, Djokovic broke the Spanish player’s serve, then in the fourth, he capitalized on the third game point and led 4-0, later taking the set point in the seventh game to win the first set 6:1.
The continuation brought practically identical play as in the first set, with Djokovic breaking in the first game of the second set to lead 1:0, followed by the same scenario in the third game, extending his lead to 3:0.
Nadal then broke Djokovic’s serve in the sixth game to narrow the score to 4:2 and then held his serve to improve his impression, reducing the score to 4:3. The Spaniard then used the second break point to fully return to the second set, leveling the score at 4:4.
Djokovic then used the fourth break point to lead 5:4, putting himself in a position to serve for the match, which he successfully did, thus handing Nadal the heaviest defeat of his career in Paris. Nadal’s previous heaviest defeat on the Paris clay was also by Djokovic, who beat him in the 2015 Roland Garros quarterfinals 3-0 in sets, with Nadal winning only nine games.
Djokovic, in his pursuit of Olympic gold, will play in the round of 16 against the winner of the match between Dominik Koepfer from Germany and Matteo Arnaldi from Italy.
Result:
Novak Djokovic (Serbia) (1) – Rafael Nadal (Spain) 2:0 (6:1, 6:4)
