No rivalry on the men's tour has produced more spectacular tennis over a larger body of work than Novak Djokovic versus Rafael Nadal. In the waning days of Nadal's career, it was hard to envision a 60th installment of it. The Spaniard hasn't been playing often enough, or gone deep enough into events, to meet his antagonist. But the singles draw at the Paris Olympics lined up just so, and over the weekend, each man won his first-round match to secure the date.
Nadal, who said last season that he planned to retire in 2024 but has been a little cagier about his plans as of late, entered Monday's match with a very remote chance of leveling his head-to-head record against Djokovic at 30 wins apiece. A deluded Rafa fan could have mounted an optimist's case. Warming up for this event, Nadal fought hard to make the final of the Swedish Open a week ago before losing his steam. At the Olympics, he'd been playing some brilliant doubles alongside his energetic Padawan Carlos Alcaraz, a cute and disgustingly talented duo with no prior experience but a predictably smooth learning curve. And he'd be playing the match on Court Philippe-Chatrier, site of his 14 Roland-Garros victories, the most meaningful patch of dirt in his whole career. But Nadal collided unspectacularly against a dialed-in Djokovic and lost, 6-1, 6-4, in a rout that only briefly flickered into life in the second set before following the expected course.
One look at the legs would confirm that these are not young men out there. Nadal's right thigh was heavily wrapped with bandages, and his coach Carlos Moya raised doubts as recently as this past Thursday about his participation in the singles. Nadal won his last title at Roland-Garros in 2022, standing on an anaesthetized left foot, and the 38-year-old has operated in an an almost permanent stasis since then. On Djokovic's right knee was the grey sleeve he sported through his run to the final at Wimbledon, after an unbelievably quick turnaround from meniscus surgery in June. Djokovic, who won three of four majors just last year, has struggled this season, for reasons ranging from motivation to inconveniently talented junior colleagues like Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz, who booted him out of the Australian Open semifinal and Wimbledon final respectively.
But nothing can make Djokovic snap back into clarity like a glimpse of his most storied rival, and he played as if he'd taken a whiff of smelling salts. Nadal found himself down 0-5, serving to avoid the indignity of his first-ever bagel set lost on these grounds. He did get on the scoreboard, but Djokovic served out the set in 39 minutes.
There's no mystery as to what happened. A subpar Nadal is food for Djokovic. The Spaniard's movement was clearly compromised, and while that can be tactfully hidden on a doubles court, all his shortcomings were laid bare in singles. The weaknesses cascaded. He got there a step later; he could do less with the ball because he was rushed; his reply was safe or shallow, managing none of the depth and pace that make it so miserable to trade blows with him from the baseline. Whereas an off-his-game Roger Federer might still be going for low-margin offense and missing, an off-his-game Nadal puts balls in play that can actually build a good opponent's confidence. Those shallow balls invited Djokovic to step into the court and feel secure perched atop the baseline, dictating play by scattering deep balls all over the court.
With Nadal thus compromised, the match bore none of the surreal marks of Wide Tennis, characterized by hyper-aggressive shots played from traditionally defensive court positioning—genuine attacks launched from outside the doubles alleys. These two men effectively invented the elite offense-defense hybrid that allows them to deform the shape of rallies in such a spectacular fashion. Not this day, though. Until 4-0 in the second set, there was little resistance from Nadal, no friction to produce the creative sparks that these two tend to produce. Then there was a loose service game from Djokovic, his first lapse in focus of the day. It took 64 minutes for Nadal to produce his first break point, but he made good on it, and held onto his own serve. In outrageous fashion, he got his second break of serve with the point of the match, a desperate flick of improvisation off an Djokovic overhead smash. Chants of "Rafa" spilled from the stands. Suddenly the match seemed to be evolving into something much more vivid and arresting.
That vision was fleeting. At 4-4, Djokovic killed all of Nadal's momentum with a smothering break of serve, punctuated with the cleanest, deadest drop shot of the day, a perfect way to put a fading foe back in his place. He walked to his chair for the changeover, identified the haters in the crowd—imagined or otherwise—pointed to his ear, and savored a healthy peal of booing. Then he proceeded to serve out the match.
"I haven't had the shot quality to create problems for him," Nadal said afterward. "I don't have the legs I had 15 years ago either. So without the shot quality and the legs I had 15 years ago, you're not going to create problems for the best in history, right?" He did not clear up whether this would be his last singles match at Roland-Garros, but he did say his injuries were minor and shouldn't interfere with his doubles quest alongside Alcaraz.
As far as burnishing his legacy is concerned, it was an ideal day for Djokovic. He continues his pursuit of the Olympic gold medal, the only significant outstanding item on his tennis to-do list, and he secured the lifetime edge against his chief adversary, 31-29.
