Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal will kick off their Olympic campaigns during first-round action on Sunday in Rio de Janeiro. Djokovic is facing Juan Martin Del Potro, while Nadal is beginning his comeback against Federico Delbonis.
(1) Novak Djokovic vs. Juan Martin Del Potro
Djokovic and Del Potro will be squaring off for the 15th time in their careers when they collide at the Olympics–again–on Sunday in Rio de Janeiro. The familiar foes faced each other in the bronze-medal match at the 2012 London Games, where Del Potro triumphed 7-5, 6-4 on the grass courts of the All-England Club. Djokovic, however, is dominating the head-to-head series 11-3 and he has won six of their seven previous hard-court encounters (not including one retirement). Due mostly to Del Potro’s extensive wrist-injury problems, these two Grand Slam champions have not met since the 2013 World Tour Finals, an event that saw the Serb prevail 6-3, 3-6, 6-3 during round-robin action.
Del Potro’s 2016 comeback from his latest wrist surgery has been slow but steady. The 27-year-old Argentine is 13-8 for the season and his recent grass-court swing included a semifinal showing in Stuttgart and a third-round performance at Wimbledon. Del Potro got adjusted to the Olympic courts on Saturday, when he teamed up with Maximo Gonzalez to win their first doubles match 6-4, 7-5 over the Australian duo of Chris Guccione and John Peers. Djokovic bounced back from a shocking Wimbledon loss to Sam Querrey by lifting another Masters 1000 trophy at the Rogers Cup. Having settled for bronze at the 2008 Beijing Olympics before missing out on a medal in London, Djokovic should be more than motivated in Rio. That is bad news for Del Potro, for whom this obviously an extremely bad draw.
Pick: Djokovic in 2
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(3) Rafael Nadal vs. Federico Delbonis
Nadal will be taking the court for the first time since round two of the French Open when he begins his bid for a second career gold medal. The Spaniard kicked off his effort for a 10th title at Roland Garros by destroying Sam Groth and Facundo Bagnis, but he suddenly withdrew because of a wrist problem. Nadal missed Wimbledon and everything else in between the French Open and the Olympics, but he appears to be good to go for Rio. After all, not only is he signed up for singles but he is also competing in the two doubles disciplines (men’s with Marc Lopez and mixed with Garbine Muguruza).
Up first for Nadal on Sunday is a third career meeting with Delbonis. Their two previous encounters resulted in clay-court beatdowns in Nadal’s favor; he cruised 6-3, 6-2 at the 2013 Vina Del Mar event before rolling 6-1, 6-1 last season in Buenos Aires. Delbonis is in the midst of a stellar season that has him at No. 43 in the rankings thanks to a 23-14 ATP-level record. The left-handed Argentine enjoyed a consistently strong buildup to Roland Garros that featured a second career title in Marrakech, but starting in Paris he has lost first-round matches at three consecutive tournaments. Even with Nadal’s rust, that streak will almost certainly extend to four.
Pick: Nadal in 2
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Delpo’s use of backhand slice has been awesome
Juan turning back the clock tonight.
Forehand unstoppable. Right when I say that he hits maybe the biggest forehand of the night. Holy crap!! That thing was 1000 miles an hour jeezus!! 4-3 del Po. VAMOS Juan!
Wow! Beautiful tennis from Delpo!
HOW BIG WAS THAT FOREHAND??!!! shit! these are cannon balls!! USO 2009 forehand is back! And this delpo is tactically smarter in setting points up!! Djokovic is going out today I reckon. He’s fighting hard but he looks very nervous too.
Big game here. Break him Juan!! I predicted a three set win for Nole. Technically that could still happen but I really hope it doesn’t. I hope del Po scores the upset.
WEAK second serve from Novak…. gets away with it
Look at how weak those second serves are!! delpo must pounce on them!
Djokovic bouncing his way to 27 seconds between points and surprise no Rafa time violation being enforced.
Mariascrews up again
Time djokovic serve between points in his next service game. Betcha not one within the 20 seconds allowed.
Only enforced on Rafa.
21, 24, 23, 33, 26, 35, 23, 32, 30 seconds.
Every serve exceeded the rule and no call from Maria.
Congrats to me.
Level of tennis insane
delpo’s never hit the inside-in forehand better..NEVER
outrageousssssssss
Outrageous that one of these guys has to go home after this match!
Delpo up 3 – 0 in 2nd set tb. Think he has to win it here or djoko will take the 3rd set and the match
Delpo is on fire! This is really vintage Delpo!
So great to see him playing like this!
Delpo seems to be in the zone right now. I can’t believe that he’s up 5-0
In the tb!
Vamosrblade Delpo!!!
Djoko – OUT! 🙄
Brilliant.
DEL PO!!! VAMOOOOOSSSSSSSS!!!!!!! Thought I was bold having Djoker lose in QF. But he lost first round!! Let’s go JUAN!!
Fantastic match. Epic win and so great to see Delpo back again finally!
Sorry to see nole go out so soon.
Huge win for Delpo and tennis.
Wow! He did it! I am getting emotional! What a performance!
Congratulations to Delpo on a great win! Taking out the #1 seed here at the Olympics!
His reaction was so wonderful! 🙂