5 greatest Rafael Nadal-Novak Djokovic encounters
The French Open is reaching its twilight stages with the quarter-finals beginning today. In the women’s section, former World No. 1 Caroline Wozniacki and French No. 1 Kristina Mladenovic play their quarter-final games today against Latvian Jelena Ostapenko and former French Open semi-finalist Timea Bacsinszky, respectively.
In the men’s section, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic play their quarter-final matches against Pablo Carreno-Busta and Dominic Thiem respectively. Provided Nadal and Djokovic win today, they will take on each other in the semi-finals and given the kind of form they are in, the likelihood of that happening is quite high.
If Nadal and Djokovic play against each other in the semi-finals, then it would be their 51st meeting with Djokovic leading the head-to-head 26-24 although the Spaniard comprehensively defeated Djokovic in their last meeting at the semi-finals of the Madrid Open.
With the probability of a Nadal-Djokovic semi-final extremely high, let’s take a look at five of their most exciting matches in the past.
#5 2014 Rome Masters final
Rafael Nadal reached the final of the 2014 Rome Masters but there wasn’t a single match in the tournament that he had won in straight sets. Nadal defeated Grigor Dimitrov to reach the final where he was up against Novak Djokovic who defeated Milos Raonic in the semi-finals.
Nadal began the match brilliantly and took the first set 6-4. However, Djokovic held his nerve and broke twice during the second set to win it 6-3 and level the match. The Serb broke in the third set early but Nadal did not give in and levelled the set at 3-3. However, Djokovic’s brilliance from the baseline eventually got the better of the Spaniard as he won the remaining three games to seal the match and take home his third title in Rome.