“It is not an excuse, thanks to that he is the best” – how injury helped shape the Nadal Djokovic rivalry
The pair met a total of 60 times throughout their careers, with Djokovic edging the head-to-head by 31-29
Djokovic and Nadal in their final meeting at the Paris 2024 Olympics Zuma/Panoramic
The finished product of any true tennis rivalry is one shared canvas upon which both players have painted their story.
After 60 meetings spanning a total of18 years, one of the most intense and enthralling rivalries in sporting history has finally come to an end, its freshly dried canvas now ready to be hung alongside the pantheon of tennis’ greatest career-long duels.
Rafael Nadal versus Novak Djokovic was a near-two decade long battle of breathtaking quality and pulsating drama. Every encounter between these two was a story in its own right, seemingly existing independently of the wider tournament narrative or immediate rankings repercussions. It was a fight to seal ownership of the next chapter in the ongoing tale of ‘the Spaniard and the Serb’.
It is, of course, with tremendous sadness that such a momentous gift to sport has come to its natural conclusion. And yet, it is often when things come to a close that they can be best understood and appreciated.
With no further question marks around the final Grand Slam tally or head-to-head supremacy, the great Djokovic-Nadal melodrama – one that has so acrimoniously divided tennis fans for the best part of the 21st century – can now be looked back on in a more philosophical light.
“I have the utmost respect for you – an incredible athlete and an incredible person,” were Djokovic’s heartfelt words to his biggest rival following their final meeting in an exhibition in Saudi Arabia.
“The rivalry has been incredible, it has been very intense, so I hope we will have a chance to sit on the beach somewhere and have a drink reflecting on life and talking about something else.
“It’s been an incredible honour and pleasure to share the court with you. It’s an emotional moment and an emotional day, we’ve been playing so many matches over so many years.
“I will finish with one big thank you from not just me, but all of the tennis world, for what you have done. You have left an incredible legacy.”
Nadal paid similar tribute to Djokovic, admitting that without the Serb’s constant threat pushing Nadal to improve, the Spaniard “would probably not be the player that I am today.”
how injury came to frame the djokovic/nadal debate
But one area of this rivalry that merits closer reflection – not least because it has formed a consistent point of heated debate between opposing fans – is that of injury, and how it shaped much of the discourse surrounding Djokovic and Nadal.
The Spaniard suffered a litany of physical problems throughout his career. Knee, hip and back issues accompanied a chronic degenerative foot condition across the course of Nadal’s time as a professional player, repeatedly keeping him out of competitive action for extended periods.
Djokovic has also had his issues, most notably an elbow injury that eventually required surgery in February 2018. But these were much fewer and further between than his rival’s problems.
In the days since the pleasantries of those on-court exchanges in Saudi Arabia, Nadal has spoken more candidly about this in a wide-ranging interview with Spanish magazine AS, offering both high praise and a dose of perspective about his rival’s ability to remain in such prime physical health for the majority of his career.
“The numbers say that he is the best,” is perhaps the most telling of Nadal’s admissions.
“In the end, he is a player who has managed to maintain a very high level of play and improve every year. So, his tennis level has also been the best and, in addition, he is the one who has managed to stay the furthest away from injuries.
“When you have no limitations or major injuries that last for a long time, it not only affects you physically and gives you options to win, but it also generates a lack of fear on a mental level, neither of getting injured, nor of slipping when you reach a ball on a hard court.”
These are very revealing comments from the Spaniard, and a prime example of the diplomatic path he is well-adept at traversing when it comes to speaking about his great rival.
On the one hand, he gives Djokovic much-deserved credit for maintaining a health and fitness regime that has kept the Serb relatively free from injury compared to himself. Yet, Nadal also gently intimates that, while physical preservation is itself a measure of greatness, sustained success is easier to come by when injury woes are out of mind.
“I did it at the beginning of my career, but of course, when things happen, you just can’t do it, so these are limitations that appear along the way and you have to look for shortcuts to continue being competitive in other ways,” he continues.
“That has allowed Novak to maintain his physical, tennis and mental level for longer. It is not an excuse, thanks to that he is the best and he has really earned it.”
contrasting styles a key factor in the injury debate
While Nadal is just under a year older than Djokovic, persistent injury means he has played nine Grand Slam tournaments fewer than the Serb.
This is a statistic that has too often been interpreted in one of two ways.
Either, Djokovic’s ability to remain healthy and injury-free is seen as an integral hallmark of his greatness – something which also forms another remarkable aspect of his success, his longevity. Alternatively, one could use this to highlight Nadal’s missed opportunities to compete for Grand Slam titles, citing a better strike-rate for the Spaniard when it comes to comparing the number of majors won with the number played.
Admittedly, though, there is very little in this statistic, as Djokovic’s Grand Slam title win-rate sits at 32% with Nadal’s only negligibly higher at 33%.
Perhaps a better way to approach this, then, is to acknowledge that both sides of the argument are true, and that the nature of Nadal’s injuries is just another component of what made his and Djokovic’s rivalry so compelling.
They had polar opposite styles in almost everything they did. Nadal was a clay-court specialist, top-spin heavy aggressor, while Djokovic was the metronomic, iron-clad defender. The Serb was combustible and emotional, with all-too-human flaws that fans found either alienating or endearing. Nadal, on the other hand, was in control of his temperament, a man who rarely made headlines courting controversy and whose frustrations were always channelled into the next point.
Their injury record is simply an extension of these contrasting styles. Djokovic, a leaner, more flexible specimen whose career has been defined by an extraordinarily meticulous approach to diet and lifestyle, had to contend with far fewer physical issues than the muscle-laden, sweat-dripping Spaniard whose sheer power and athleticism were synonymous with his game style.
In short, splitting hairs about these two players’ injury records – whichever side of the debate you come down on – somewhat misses the point. Their differences here chiefly succeeded in making for a richer and more captivating rivalry.
For example, it can be reasonably argued that Nadal’s injuries were a necessary consequence of what delivered him so much success – namely, his supreme physicality.
Had Nadal significantly slimmed down his upper half to ease the weight on his creaking knees and body – something that he once attempted to do – then the rip-roaring ferocity of his groundstrokes may also have suffered. To that end, it required sacrificing his body for Nadal to keep up with Djokovic’s unprecedented standard.
Similarly for Djokovic, he was only able to nudge his tally ahead of Nadal’s once the Spaniard’s body was well and truly cooked. It was the Serb’s relentless longevity, fitness and consistent appearances at the majors that proved imperative to his eventually superior Grand Slam tally – which, needless to say, may not yet be definitive.
The physical yin and yang of these two players elevated their fierce competitiveness until the very end. With the dust only just starting to settle on the end of the Djokovic Nadal story, it is evident that one of their starkest points of contrast will come to rest in the history books as further evidence that theirs was one of the finest rivalries tennis has ever seen.
