On his quest to a first Olympic gold medal, Novak Djokovic takes down longtime rival Rafael Nadal at Roland Garros for Paris 2024.
Facing off for the 60th time in their historic rivalry, no. 1 seed Novak Djokovic stamped his class with a straight-set win over Rafael Nadal in the second round of men’s singles tennis of Paris 2024 Monday (Philippine time).
Djokovic survived a strong second-set comeback over Nadal, hacking out the 6-1, 6-4 win to advance at the expense of the Beijing 2008 champion.
Facing off at Roland Garros, the site of their first-ever matchup in 2006, Djokovic pulled ahead of his all-time head-to-head against Nadal, 31-29.
Novak also took his third win over Rafa at the clay courts of Roland Garros. The rightful King of Clay, Nadal has a 112-4 record in the French Open, with the two losses coming from Djokovic.
Representing his home country Serbia and looking for his first Olympic gold medal, Djokovic was on the way to a comfortable victory after a dominant first set and zooming to a 4-0 lead in the second.
Nadal showed signs of life after breaking Djokovic’s serve, racking up four-straight games to tie. However, Djokovic responded with a break himself to regain the lead before finishing the win from his own service game.
Djokovic will await the winner of the Dominik Koepfer-Matteo Arnaldi in round 3.
Nadal will have to shift his gold medal quest in doubles, where he and Carlos Alcaraz are in line with a match against the Netherlands in round 2.