Between them they have won a staggering total of 46 Grand Slam men’s singles titles, but the luck of the draw meant top seed Novak Djokovic of Serbia met his great rival Rafael Nadal of Spain in only the second round of the Paris Olympic tennis at the Roland Garros here.
The two greats of the racquet game, both in the evening of their fabulous journey in tennis, have fought many a pitched battle between themselves in their glittering careers.
Today was their 60th meeting and it happened on the Philippe Chartrier centre court where Nadal has won 14 out of his 20 Grand Slam titles to be termed the emperor of clay courts.
Their last meeting was here two years ago when Nadal bested his arch rival in the quarter finals on his way to his 14th French Open crown.
But today Nadal, although trying his best, couldn’t match his rival for the most part although he fought back brilliantly late in the second set.
He made far too many unforced errors, 19 in all, and went was beaten 6-1, 6-4 in one hour forty minutes of a contest billed as an Olympic blockbuster to make his exit from the singles. He is partnering his younger compatriot Carlos Alcaraz in the doubles competition.
Nadal, incidentally, has won the Olympic gold twice – in 2008 in singles and in 2016 in the doubles in contrast to Djokovic who is seeking his maiden title in the quadrennial sports spectacle although he has 24 titles under his belt in Grand Slam events.
Djokovic – who recently lost to Nadal’s younger compatriot Carlos Alcaraz in the Wimbledon Open final – had the upper hand initially against a rival who showed glimpses of his former self as both traded heavy top spun groundstrokes from the baseline.
Nadal, who has played only seven tournaments this year and was even doubtful to make an appearance here following a thigh injury during practice, was the crowd favourite and the packed gathering was vociferous in backing the 38-year-old left handed Spaniard with shouts of “Rafa, Rafa”.
But Djokovic didn’t allow the Spaniard to settle down and quickly jumped to a 5-0 lead with breaks in the second and fourth games before Nadal won his first game of the contest.
The Serb, however, didn’t let loosen his iron grip and clinched the opening set 6-1 in 39 minutes when Nadal hit his forehand wide.
The second set too proceeded on similar lines with Djokovic jumping to a 3-0 lead by breaking Nadal in the first and third games with his superb service returns backed up by effective ground strokes.
The Spaniard bounced back similar to what he has done often in his career when he broke back when trailing 1-4 to reduce the Serb’s lead to 2-4. He then held serve in impressive style to make it 4-3 in Djokovic’s favour.
Nadal then broke his rival’s serve again in the eighth game to draw level, by winning the last point with a spectacular forehand pass that beat Djokovic all ends up and made the crowd delirious.
Djokovic fought back immediately by breaking Nadal in the ninth game on the fourth break point with a drop from the baseline which Nadal couldn’t reach to take a 5-4 lead.
Djokovic then held serve, winning his last point with his fourth ace, to clinch the match and move into the third round.
In all, Djokovic hit 8 forehand and backhand winners while Nadal was credited with 6 and 3 respectively.
In all Djokovic, with a 30-29 rpt 30-29head to head reecord against Nadal going into the match, hit 22 service winners. In comparison Nadal had one lone ace and a dozen service winners.
Meanwhile, the Indian presence in tennis has come to an end with the first round elimination of Sumit Nagal in the men’s singles and the pairing of Rohan Bopanna and Sriram Balaji in the men’s doubles.
Nagal was beaten in three sets by his first round rival Corentin Moutet of Olympics hosts France while Bopanna and Balaji also lost to Frenchmen G Monfils and Roger Vesselin in straight sets.