There was little doubt when the French Open draw came out that a semifinal showdown between Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal would come to fruition.
That is indeed the case, as the two all-time greats will square off for the 58th time in their careers on Friday evening.
Djokovic leads the head-to-head series by an incredibly slim 29-28 margin. The fact that it could be all tied up after 58 meetings is fun to think about, but it is hardly the most relevant statistic. This is what matters: Nadal is 5-0 in their last five clay-court contests, while Djokovic is 10-0 in their last 10 matches on hard courts and grass. Nadal hasn’t won on anything other than clay since the 2013 U.S. Open final.
Good news for the Spaniard: we are once again only talking about clay.
In fact, it’s more like great news. Nadal’s perfect 5-0 mark on the slow stuff, which dates back to the start of 2017, also includes an 11-2 sets record at Djokovic’s expense. Their 2020 French Open matchup came in the final and the King of Clay dominated it 6-0, 6-2, 7-5. They most recently faced each other in last month’s Rome final, with Nadal recovering from a mid-match hiccup to triumph 7-5, 1-6, 6-3.
None of those results bode well for Djokovic. Conditions at a most unusual 2020 Roland Garros event–held in October instead of June–were far worse for Nadal, and he still had no trouble giving the Serb a free clay-court lesson. It is also no secret that Nadal is much tougher to beat in Paris than in Rome. Take 2020, for example. He lost to Diego Schwartzman in the Rome quarterfinals only to dominate the French Open without dropping a single set in the process–including a 6-3, 6-3, 7-6(0) semifinal beatdown of Schwartzman.
If Djokovic could not beat Nadal in Rome, what’s to say he can do it now?
His form, although decent, definitely doesn’t. The world No. 1 cruised through his first three matches of the fortnight in straight sets, but he lost a pair of tiebreakers to Lorenzo Musetti on Monday and then required three hours and 28 minutes to get past Matteo Berrettini 6-3, 6-2, 6-7(5), 7-5 in the quarters.
Nadal, on the other hand, has been entirely dominant. The third seed crushed Alexei Popyrin, Richard Gasquet, Cameron Norrie, and Jannik Sinner in straight sets to reach the last eight. Schwartzman ended Nadal’s French Open set streak at 36 on Wednesday, but the 34-year-old responded to that test by winning 30 of the match’s last 35 points en route to a 6-3, 4-6, 6-4, 6-0 victory.
With five more wins under his belt, Nadal is now 105-2 lifetime at Roland Garros. He is 13-0 in semifinal matches. Add finals to the mix and he is 26-0 in his career once he advances to this stage of the French Open.
There is no reason to think such perfection will end on Friday.
Pick: Nadal in 3
Meant to add congrats to RC,Big Al and the nice Nole fans 🙂
Of course, we are, and you have always been a nice Rafa fan 😘
What , arent all Rafa fans nice?
I have not always been nice, Big Al. My teeth are sharp and do know how to speak with a forked tongue. But when I came to this blog as the only Novak fan, I had no home for posting comments and talking WTA. This was my last outpost and I had to reform, as I mentioned elsewhere.
Rafa fans are hugely defensive of their man. I knew that. Some Novak fans and Fed fans are just as bad. In the old days, before 2010, let’s say, all blog posts were at war. This era is quite peaceful by comparison.
There is one, maybe two troll(s) here. That’s nothing.
Djoker continuously peppering Rafa’s BH and pushing him on corner and Rafa unable to stay in that rally and unable to hit DL BH just nailed it.
This plan is known to lot but very few can even execute this. I thought Djoker played really well yesterday barring first five games (even first two games were good level from Nole also), Rafa not so good. I thought his BH deserted him yesterday.
Hi there AM thanks and lovely to see you too and the other lovely ladies I haven’t blogged for a while as I’ve been having a lot of personal problems and had such a lot going on been a tough couple of years hope you and all your family are doing well xx
Alison,
How wonderful to see you here! You have been missed! Thank you for your thoughts about Rafa and this loss. Much needed. No it’s not the end of the world or the end of Rafa. He has nothing left to prove at RG. Novak got the win, but it’s not like he reinvented the wheel. His behavior lately has been very off putting. The screaming and bellowing, the kicking things, the sense of entitlement and temper tantrums, are not befitting the # 1 player.
Please come around more!
😀
Alison,
I thought that I posted something to you but don’t see it here. I just want to say that it’s great to see you here! You have been missed!
Thanks so much for your words about Rafa. No it’s not the end of the world. We have lost over half a million people in the U.S. to COVID. That is a tragedy. This is sport. I am not thinking up scenarios where Rafa drops out of the top ten, never wins another slam and on and on.
I really would like the trolls to go play marbles on a motorway. Just get the hell off this site!
NNY,
It is a shame no one is minding the store. The trolls have it.
It sounds perhaps like two voices but one voice is familiar. The writing style is getting quite familiar the more serious about tennis he writes. When tossing out vulgarities it could be anyone. But he is not here to do only that. He wants to be taken seriously. He also demands silence from the females here, the ones he thinks are thick as thieves and would be after him/her if using a previous moniker. A misogynist troll is not necessarily male, of course.
You have to grow a very thick skin to exist on the net.There are a lot of very angry, scary people out there and the net is a “safe” place for them to vent.
And of course never take anything personally, but me oh my that one takes a lot of practise. 🙁
Hey back Al!..I am so sorry to hear yor ‘difficulties! Al..I know u’re a very strong & brave women ..I hope u will get thru it unscathed!..
Wish to ‘c’ u here constantly from now on Al!..Who knows when we chat about Rafa more,all that pain will go away?👋😍
Good to see you Alison. The last 15 months have been horrible, let’s hope better times are ahead. x
Despite the loss, Rafa would still win 23 to 24 slams by the time he retires. 3 or 4 more FO is very possible for him. One loss after 2015 is very human. He would win slam until older age than Fed. Nole would eventually reach 26 to 27 slams.
Nny…I found an article today that i think u might interested to read…
https://www.tennisworldusa.org/tennis/news/Rafael_Nadal/99321/-it-is-true-that-rafael-nadal-had-a-few-small-problems-but-says-top-coach/