Rafael Nadal satisfied tennis fans by overcoming Marton Fucsovics to win a ticket to the second round of the men's singles tennis event at the 2024 Olympics. There, Novak Djokovic was waiting.
Nadal meeting Djokovic in the second round of a tennis tournament is unprecedented. Statistics show that, in addition to tournaments that organize group stage matches, the earliest clashes of two of the men's tennis legends were in the quarterfinals.
However, with Nadal affected by injury throughout 2023, he has bounced outside the world's Top 600. Returning to competition in 2024, Nadal is now ranked 161 in the world, but of course that is not enough for him to enter the seeding group.
Nadal came to the 2024 Olympics as a tennis player defending his ranking and the draw results put him in the branch with Djokovic. They met in round 2.
Of course, it is a pity that one of the two had to leave the tournament early, but the match also made fans excited about Olympic tennis 2024.
The history of confrontation between Nadal and Djokovic began in 2006 and until 2022, every year, they meet at least once.
According to the ATP Tour, Nadal vs. Djokovic ranks third on the list of rivalries in the 2000s, despite them only starting in 2006. By the time of their 2024 Olympic match, they had faced off 59 times, including joint finished at all Grand Slam tournaments, with Djokovic leading 30-29.
In finals at all levels, Djokovic leads 15-13, while at major tournaments, Nadal leads 11-7, of which the final score is 5-4.
Nadal leads 8-2 at the French Open, 2-1 at the US Open, while Djokovic leads 2-0 at the Australian Open and 2-1 at Wimbledon.
Djokovic is the only player to defeat Nadal in 4 Grand Slam tournaments.
In the 59 matches they met, 27 matches took place on hard courts (Djokovic led 20-7), 28 clay court matches (Nadal led 20-8), and 4 grass court matches (2-2 draw).
Between 2006 and 2009, the rivalry between Nadal and Djokovic was not really prominent because it was still overshadowed by the rivalry between Nadal and Roger Federer. Only from the 2010 US Open final - which was also their first major final, did the rivalry begin to be recognized.
Some matches between them are classified as "classics" and are among the best matches in tennis history such as the 2009 Madrid Masters semi-finals, the 2011 Miami Masters final, the 2012 Australian Open final, and the French semi-finals. 2013 Open, 2018 Wimbledon semi-finals and 2021 French Open semi-finals.
The 2012 Australian Open final is considered by many experts, analysts, legends and former players to be the best match in history.
Notably, at the Olympics, Nadal and Djokovic had their only clash in 2008, in Beijing (China), with Nadal winning in the semi-finals before he won the gold medal that year.
Today, will the score be 30-30 or 31-29?
The Djokovic vs Nadal match is scheduled to take place at 6:30 p.m. on July 29.
