Djokovic Defeats Nadal at Paris Olympics, Remains On Track For First Gold Medal
Novak Djokovic continued his quest for an elusive first gold medal at the Paris Olympics on Monday when he overcame long-time competitor Rafael Nadal 6-1, 6-4 in the latest chapter of the pair’s historic rivalry.
As they had done in their most recent meeting in 2022, Djokovic and Nadal were competing on Philippe-Chatrier in front of a raucous crowd. Spaniard Nadal earned a four-set quarter-final victory on that occasion at Roland Garros but was not able to inflict the same outcome on Djokovic, who reached the Wimbledon final earlier this month.
The Serbian, currently No. 2 in the PIF ATP Rankings, controlled proceedings throughout the first 60 minutes and looked on course for a comfortable win when he led 6-1, 4-0. However, Nadal had only lost four times on Court Philippe-Chatrier before Monday and showed why during a 30-minute surge in the second set.
The 38-year-old started to land more blows with his heavy topspin forehand. It broke Djokovic's serve to level at 4-4 in dramatic style when he retrieved a Djokovic smash with a smash of his own, before firing a forehand into the open corner. The crowd erupted and momentum seemed to be turning the Spaniard's way.
Djokovic was not to be denied, though, immediately breaking Nadal's serve again with a deft drop shot on his fourth break point of the game to lead 5-4 before he held to improve to 31-29 in the pair’s Lexus ATP Head2Head series.
With his victory, Djokovic gained some Olympics revenge on Nadal, who beat the 98-time tour-level titlist en route to the gold medal in Beijing in 2008. Djokovic, who went on to win the bronze 16 years ago, has earned 15 singles match wins at the Olympics, equalling Steffi Graf’s record for the most Olympic singles matches won since Seoul in 1988.
Djokovic, who has not won an Olympic medal since 2008, will play Germany’s Dominik Koepfer or Italy’s Matteo Arnaldi in the third round.
Nadal lost in the first round at Roland Garros in May to Alexander Zverev and then missed the grass-court season. The 38-year-old returned to action at the ATP 250 event in Bastad earlier this month when he reached the final. He then clawed past Marton Fucsovics in three sets in his first-round match at the Paris Olympics on Sunday. Still, he was unable to match Djokovic’s level for long enough periods, with the Serbian striking 20 winners and committing 15 unforced errors to advance after one hour and 41 minutes.
It was the 60th and potentially final chapter of one of the sport’s greatest rivalries, a match-up that stretches back 18 years between two players with a combined 46 Grand Slam titles, and Djokovic edged his head-to-head lead to 31-29 with just his third win from 11 meetings with Nadal on the Parisian clay.
