A much-anticipated Olympic showdown between Serbia’s Novak Djokovic and Spain’s Rafael Nadal lived up to the billing after a slow start.
The top-seeded Djokovic secured a 6-1, 6-4 victory over Nadal in a second-round match between two tennis legends on Monday at Roland-Garros.
Nadal was undone by a slow start and while he made a push in the second set, it was too little too late. In the first set, Nadal fell behind 5-0 before winning a game, and the trouble continued in the second. But after falling behind 4-0, Nadal rattled off four straight games to make things interesting. Djokovic recovered from there, though, breaking Nadal’s serve for the third time in the set before serving out the victory.
It was the 60th match between the two — and the first before the quarterfinals at a traditional tournament. Djokovic, 37, now has a 31-29 edge, and many wonder if the Olympics will mark the end of this great rivalry.
Nadal, 38, battled a hip problem earlier this year that convinced him to drop out of Wimbledon and then reportedly suffered a thigh injury just before the Olympics.
Known as the king of clay, Nadal has won a record 14 career French Open titles at the famous venue hosting the Olympics. But Djokovic has a record 24 overall Grand Slam championships, two more than Nadal.
Djokovic is missing an Olympic gold, however. Nadal took the 2008 Beijing Games title, beating Djokovic in the semifinals.
Nadal is extremely popular in France because of his success at the French Grand Slam. He was picked to take part in the Olympic-torch-lighting run at the opening ceremony and the crowd clearly was behind him on Monday.
But Djokovic was clinical, wiping out any chances of momentum for Nadal.
Djokovic has looked great so far in Paris, crushing Nadal after beating Matthew Ebden of Australia 6-0, 6-1 in the first round on Saturday.
Nadal, conversely, needed two-and-a-half hours to survive a three-setter against Hungary’s Marton Fucsovics on Sunday and also played a doubles match on Saturday.