The top two players in the world, who will swap spots in the rankings shortly after this match, will be squaring off for the Beijing title on Sunday. Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal are set for a rematch of their recent U.S. Open final.
Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal will facing each other for the 38th time in their careers and for the fifth time this season when they collide in the final of the China Open on Sunday.
Nadal leads the back-and-forth head-to-head series 22-15, but Djokovic has won 11 of their 18 hard-court encounters. Djokovic ended his rival’s Monte-Carlo reign this spring with a 6-2, 7-6(1) victory, but the tide has since turned. Nadal has won their last three meetings; at Roland Garros (9-7 in the fifth), in Montreal (in a third-set tiebreaker), and in the U.S. Open final (6-2, 3-6, 6-4, 6-1). Following seven in a row to Djokovic from 2011 through the 2012 Australian Open, Nadal has won six of their last seven showdowns.
The Serb is not the only one struggling against Nadal these days. In fact, the second-ranked Spaniard has dominated the tour in 2013 since returning from a seven-month absence. He is undefeated on hard courts this year, with a 26-0 record that includes titles in Indian Wells, Montreal, Cincinnati, and at the U.S. Open. Nadal advanced to the Beijing title match with victories over Santiago Giraldo, Philipp Kohlschreiber, Fabio Fognini, and Tomas Berdych. The No. 2 seed needed three sets–and a comeback from 6-2, 4-1 down–to get past Fognini, so a first-set retirement from Berdych was not an unwelcome development.
Djokovic also dropped just one set en route to the final. He hammered Lukas Rosol, battled past Fernando Verdasco in three, then rolled over Sam Querrey and Richard Gasquet. The world No. 1 is 56-9 for the season (55-6 against everyone other than Nadal), with titles in Melbourne, Dubai, and Monte-Carlo to his credit.
This may not be a huge title by their standards, but both Djokovic and Nadal will be eager to win this one. Nadal’s berth in the final assures that he will become the top-ranked player in the world on Monday, so Djokovic will at least want some kind of consolation prize before it happens. Nadal clinched it through the back door against Berdych, so he will want a real and true triumph to cement his upcoming status.
Nadal looked much better during his brief time on court against the Czech on Saturday than he did versus Fognini, when an injury scare occurred after the very first point. The left did knee did not appear to be an issue in the semis–thus the door is open for Nadal’s unbelievable season to get even better.
Pick: Nadal in 3
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Rafa never likes playing Paris so it won’t be a surprise if he pulls out, but Nole could gain a lot of points there.
Guys Novak is not gonna win Beijing, Shanghai, Paris, WTF on a trot..he will lose sumwer..
Quite agree @Sanju. However, even if he does:
a) just means he will have a lot of points to defend next year
b0 all Rafa has to do is get to the finals in Shanghai and Basel and he ends up Ye#1. Rafa is going to win some RR matches at WTF anyway………..
The match to watch will be the possible Fed-Novak quarterfinal encounter in Shanghai. Fed has semi final points to defend and he needs to add Race points to assure WTF participation so that is a match I am looking forward to…..
Which is why Rafa needs to do well in Shanghai to take the pressure off. I hope Rafa makes one last push in Shanghai, wins it and makes Paris results irrelevant. Then he would only need to get to the final in Basel and YE#1 would be locked in…………
Nadal didn’t get much rhythm from his last 2 matches, The Fognini match was awkward then Berdy pulled out, so that didn’t help.
For sure Rafa needs to raise his level in Shanghai………………….
I am expecting Fed to help Rafa by bumping out Novak..he surely can in the QF
As for Rafa’s possible withdrawal from the Paris Masters, it would be convenient to “conduct promontional activities” in Paris – to avoid a penalty. He has done this in previous years. In 2010, he had a photo shoot at Disneyland. (The Paris Masters 2010 was held on Nov. 8 – 14.)
Rafael Nadal at Disneyland Paris:
9 November 2010
http://www.diszine.com/content/rafael-nadal-at-disneyland-paris
The ATP website:
—Players with direct acceptance who do not play an ATP World Tour Masters 1000 tournament will be suspended from a subsequent ATP World Tour Masters 1000 event, which will be the next highest points earned ATP World Tour Masters 1000 event within the next 12 months. If an injured player is on site within the first three days of a tournament to conduct PROMOTIONAL activities over a two-day period, a suspension will not be enforced.—
Rafa lives with the knowledge his knee/knees could break down on him at any point. My feeling is he’s hell bent on playing as much as he possibly can while he is healthy and, set his heart on reaching YE No.1 and World No.1. If he achieves both those goals I think he’ll play less next year and only when he feels he has a fair chance of going deep in the majors and masters.
As Ricky often reminds us, accepting a financial penalty is neither here nor there. We also know he is not unduly concerned about breaking records for their own sake. He has pushed himself to the limit this year. Having proved to himself he can do it and brought unlimited happiness to all his fans in the process I think it’s time to cut him some slack if he doesn’t bring home the bacon every time.
^^quite agree, Rafa lost a battle but won the war for #1
ed251137@October 6, 2013 at 12:21 pm
—As Ricky often reminds us, accepting a financial penalty …. —
A financial penalty??? As for me, I’m talking only about ranking points penalties!
I’m only saying this because an underlying theme running through the threads is ‘Rafa MUST do this, that, or the other …………….’
You’ll recall he did not look particularly devastated during the presentation. On the contrary, he was quite relaxed – almost as though he was not surprised. Of course he would have preferred to win but he was sanguine about the loss.
“I didn’t see the way to stop him this afternoon. This afternoon he was too strong for me. I didn’t play my best match this afternoon, but he played at a very high level with his serve. I was not able to have any chance when I was returning during the whole match”, said Rafa.
“He had the ball staying very low. It was very difficult to create spin on this ball. He was able to hit all the balls where he wanted. When that’s happening against a player like Novak, you are dead. You don’t have not one chance.”
“I am back at the No. 1, something that I really thought that I would never have the chance to be back there,” Rafa said. “I’m playing one of the best seasons of my career, probably one of the more emotional years, if not the most for so many facts.”
http://rafaelnadalfans.com/2013/10/06/china-open-2013-final-photos-rafael-nadal-novak-djokovic-world-no-1/
Hahaha! Now we know where Shanghai Rolex Masters stand on the GOAT debate:
http://www.whosay.com/status/bryanbros/747236?wsref=tw&code=Sup6UQo
They have a GOAT gala dinner? Would love to know who was invited…………..
So what will they do for the GOAT slayer?
The media and tournament promoters are not going to give up easily on the subject of his goatdom. I can envisage a scenario where Roger is wheeled onto the court and hoisted onto his feet to play so they can wring every last drop of publicity out of his presence.
As Cheryl said on her blog recently, imagine the catastrophe for the organisers if Andy has to forego WTF and Roger were not to qualify………..
“As Cheryl said on her blog recently, imagine the catastrophe for the organisers if Andy has to forego WTF and Roger were not to qualify………..”
If Rafa is there you don’t need anyone else. I’ve been o the O2 3 times and Rafa is treated like a rock star.
all 4 of them are, I’m sure (wherever the go)
ed, where did you see Cheryl’s blog recently?
Well, Fed better get his WTF skates on, he is in serious danger of not qualifying. He needs to go beyond the quarters in Shanghai to stave off the pack in hot pursuit……..
(My comment containing a link went obviously into a moderation queue. I’m trying again. This time I use a tinyURL)
As for Rafa’s possible withdrawal from the Paris Masters, it would be convenient to “conduct promontional activities” in Paris – to avoid a penalty. He has done this in previous years. In 2010, he had a photo shoot at Disneyland. (The Paris Masters 2010 was held on Nov. 8 – 14.)
Rafael Nadal at Disneyland Paris:
9 November 2010
http://tinyurl.com/pnyhz4w
The ATP website:
—Players with direct acceptance who do not play an ATP World Tour Masters 1000 tournament will be suspended from a subsequent ATP World Tour Masters 1000 event, which will be the next highest points earned ATP World Tour Masters 1000 event within the next 12 months. If an injured player is on site within the first three days of a tournament to conduct PROMOTIONAL activities over a two-day period, a suspension will not be enforced.—
^^^^I rest my case.
@RITB, haha,..well, that last post of mine came as a result of frustration…of course I am really happy rafa made it to the no.1 ranking and I could see he was fatigued…what I am worried about is that rafa has NOT been able to produce his new aggressive brand of tennis against novak …even in the USO final, that did not happen on a consistent enough basis but rafa got saved there thanks to his incredible fighting abilities…
I have to leave right now so will talk about this in more detail when I come back..
lastly, I do think rafa will play shanghai but I am not sure how his season is going to be from now on…this is why I was not having a good feeling about him playing DC and davis cup…the guy needs rest.. anyway, nothing to be so negative about !
Let’s hope rafa can rebound in Shanghai
vamosrafa,
I totally understand where you were coming from in your other post. I respect what you said because I feel the same way. I absolutely agree with your concerns.
You know my thoughts about DC. I rarely get as upset as I did when he had to jet back after the USO final and play two matches back-to-back. I thought it would take a toll on him.
What I find interesting, is that when some of us express our very real concerns about Rafa playing too much as he did at DC so soon after the USO final, then we get criticized. Then when we see the result of that catching up with Rafa at Beijing, we are supposedly not appreciating what Rafa can do or the fact that he has to live with knees that could go any time. That is exactly why I did not want him to play DC! Rafa cannot do it all. He is human. But some thought that I was overreacting. I was being realistic. There is a cost to doing something like that.
I am just grateful that you see things the same way. I didn’t freak out over the DC matches just for fun. There was real concern that was well grounded.
DC and BEIJING***
You are right to be apprehensive @vamosrafa. When you look at the Race rankings right now it looks like Rafa is untouchable but all it needs is a bad showing in Shanghai for Rafa and good showings for Novak in Shanghai and Paris and it becomes tight………
Clearly Rafa’s exhausted, with good reason. Let’s hope Rafa can dig deep and make one final push for a title at Shanghai.
#OneTournamentAtATime
Sorry, these China Open winners’ trophies look so……………….cheap.
That’s why he let Nole win it 😉
Beautiful picture of Rafa and his runner-up plate. I agree with queridorafa, it looks better than the winner’s trophy!
http://queridorafa.wordpress.com/
https://twitter.com/TennisNewsTPN/status/386824567626272769/photo/1
Nadline: Just Google CM + tennis and it’s the first item
Did she say it last year? I thought CM had a new blog somewhere and was referring to the O2 this year. Of course last year Rafa was out of the circuit.
http://www.tennistalks.com is Cheryl’s site. Ricky’s predictions are on there as well but last article was Oct. 4th after Rafa burned off The Fog.
it’s all of ours. we just aren’t doing anything over there yet. and won’t until we get it looking better.
Roger will qualify..
Augusta..wat if Berdy withdraws from Shanghai..wat will happe? who will take his place?
Sanju@October 6, 2013 at 2:37 pm
Berdy’s place will be taken by a Lucky Loser.
—A lucky loser is a sports player who loses a match in the qualifying round of a knockout tournament, but who then enters the main draw when another player withdraws after the tournament has started because of illness, injury or other reason.—
augusta..I mean in the Shanghai draw..I hope they dont bump Fed up..I so want a Fed Novak QF to take place 🙂
Thanks Agsta..thats good news 🙂
Guys apart from Isner (whom I think Rafa will beat)..the real danger is Delpo in the SF..it could be a huge banana skin
Sanju!
Ricky has posted Shanghai previews. I’ll comment about Berdy there.
Nah! Sanju, Delpo is not that much threat to Rafa.
Djokovic defeats Nadal – https://tenngrand.com/2013/10/06/djokovic-defeats-nadal-as-consolation-prize-for-ranking-swap/
Shanghai previews and picks – https://tenngrand.com/2013/10/06/shanghai-masters-preview-and-picks/
Ricky Dimon says:
October 6, 2013 at 10:16 am
will Rafa play Shanghai?
Pfft.
#BaitingTheHook
#RickyNotRafa
#FigurativelyNotLiterally
#HypotheticallyYesTechnicallyNo
Ricky, have you taken leave of your senses? If Wawa beat Rafa that would be a Tsunami if you say Rafa is hot. Rafa is below par, I have to admit. He is mentally drained after playing so many matches but I still don’t think Wawa has got what it takes even against a tired Rafa.
I thought Rafa would win Beijing but he didn’t so I’m not going to say he’ll win Shanghai, but I expect him to make the final. It would be interesting to see where Federer is after so many knocks and I would love to see him play Nole.
I would rather that the law of averages catches up with Rafa in these fall tournaments. He needs time to recover from the mental toll of the season he has had so far.
^^^Agree, but not before he clinches the YE#1! Going deep in Shanghai would be a start…………