French Open 2021: “Only Novak can beat Nadal” claims Novak Djokovic’s coach Goran Ivanisevic
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Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal
Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal have in recent times become one of the biggest tennis rivalry and have eclipsed the highly popular Federer-Nadal rivalry.
The duo of Djokovic and Nadal have met 57-times and it is the biggest tennis rivalry in terms of matches in the Open-Era with the next best coming at Djokovic-Federer with 50-matches.
Djokovic currently leads the head-to-head with Nadal having won 29 matches while Nadal has won 28 matches. Djokovic has dominated on the Hardcourts, leads the head-to-head 20-7 while Nadal leads on Clay with a record of 19-7. With both leading on their favourite surfaces, they are level on terms on Grass with 2 wins each.
As the 2021 French Open gets closer, the excitement among the fans has starting building up. Djokovic has reached the finals in Roland Garros on 5 occasions winning only once in 2016 and finished runner-up on 4 occasions. Of those 4 occasions, he has lost to Nadal on 3 occasions in the finals.
As the tournament approaches fast, Novak’s coach Goran Ivanisevic, who has been training the Serbian since June, 2019 commented on the battle between Djoko and Rafa and claimed that only Novak can beat the Spaniard. “There is only one man who can beat Nadal: Novak.” said Goran.
Novak Djokovic has only 1 win against Rafael Nadal in the French Open
Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal have faced each other 8 times at the Roland Garros with Nadal winning 7-times while Djokovic has only 1 win that came in the quarter-final of the 2015 French Open, which came against an arguably weakened Nadal who was battling his injury woes during that season.
As the draw ceremony for the French Open 2021 is set to take place on the 27th May,2021, fans are excited to see whether Novak and Rafa will be placed in the same half or not as they will enter the tournament as the 1st and the 3rd seed respectively.
“I would like them to be in the same half of the draw. Novak would play better against him in the semis.” said Goran Ivanisevic ahead of the draw ceremony which will confirm the draws.
The duo have met just once this year with the meeting taking place in the finals of the Rome Masters 2021 where Nadal emerged victorious in 3-sets clinching his 10th title in Rome defeating Djokovic for the 4th time in the finals. This was their second successive meeting on Clay as they also met in the finals of the 2020 French Open with Nadal winning in straight-sets.
It will be interesting to see the battle of the greats in the final clay showdown of the season at the 2021 French Open which will begin from the 30th May,2021 and will conclude with the Men’s finals set to be played on the 13th June,2021.
Also Read: Can Novak Djokovic finally stop Rafael Nadal at French Open 2021?
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Sarthak Shitole
(3462 Articles Published)