Olympian shake-up: Nadal bows to Djokovic in Parisian power match

Monday, 29 July 2024 at 21:14

The second round of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games hosted the most anticipated match in the tennis world. Possibly it had even more expectations than the final. Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic, the two best players in history, were facing each other for the 60th time in their respective careers.

Nadal arrived after overcoming Marton Fucsovics in the first round with more difficulties than expected, while Nole completely crushed Matt Ebden, conceding only one game. The situation suggested that the Serb was the favorite and he proved it from the beginning.

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Djokovic sweeps the first set

Djokovic wanted to make it clear that he was in Paris to win the only thing he lacks in his trophy cabinet, the Olympic gold medal. He played his best game, with a full repertoire of strokes that gave no option to Rafa Nadal. He got to 5-0 and smelled the first donut of Novak's career against the Spaniard, but the 14-time Roland Garros champion avoided it. However, it was anecdotal, as the greatest Grand Slam winner of all time closed the set with a rampant game on his serve.

Nadal revived in the second

The second set was an absolute copy and paste of the first. Djokovic continued to deploy his entire repertoire of strokes while Rafa looked fused physically and mentally. Nadal again avoided the 6-0 pulling pride but it seemed the only positive thing he could get out of this match. However, he took advantage of a drop of the world number 2 to give himself a first break option in the match. And it was a double fault of the Serb.

This gave wings to Nadal, and if there is something you should not do against Rafael Nadal and less on the Philippe Chatrier court is to give him hope. The Spaniard lived his best moment of the clash and perhaps of the season winning four games in a row to put the tie on the scoreboard and serve to get ahead.

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In the ninth game of the set he saved three break points against but could not take the fourth and Novak put himself in a position to win the match on his serve. And so he did in the first opportunity he had to conclude with a resounding 6-1, 6-4. In the round of 16, the Serb will face the winner of the match between the German Dominik Koepfer and the Italian Matteo Arnaldi.