PARIS — Top-seeded Serbian Novak Djokovic overcame a brief bout of nerves in the second set before beating 14-time French Open champion Rafael Nadal 6-1, 6-4 at the Paris Olympics on Monday.
While Djokovic moves into the third round in pursuit of his elusive Olympic gold, Spain’s Nadal has only the doubles competition left to add to his two Olympic gold medals, partnering with Carlos Alcaraz.
Djokovic, who has won 24 Grand Slam singles titles to Nadal’s 22, left nothing to chance in the 60th all-time meeting between the longtime rivals with a flawless display over a set and a half.
The World No. 2 stretched the 38-year-old Spaniard with punishing groundstrokes and perfect drop shots, making him look his age as he raced through the first set and went 4-0 up in the second.
The Roland Garros crowd was ready for a mouth-watering epic between greats, but instead they were treated to what looked like a fast-track Djokovic win.
Nadal, with his thigh wrapped due to a recent injury, was spilling unforced errors across Court Philipp Chatrier, a venue he has dominated like no other player, and lacked precision and consistency.
Early in the second set he had 13 errors, almost three times as many as Djokovic (five).
Shaking his head in disbelief, and with the crowd sensing the end of an era was fast approaching, Nadal, who has been struggling for form after a string of injuries in recent seasons, seemed on his way to one of the most bruising defeats of his career on his favorite clay surface.
But he was not going to go down without a fight and eventually gave his fans something to shout about.
A Djokovic double fault saw Nadal pull back to 4-2 and that was celebrated like a victory with almost the entire stadium jumping from their seats to cheer him on.
After another two games the Spaniard was level but instead of completing a comeback that looked all but impossible minutes earlier, it was nothing more than a reprieve as the 37-year-old Djokovic sealed victory on his first match point with an ace.
–Reuters, Special to Field Level Media
