No Paris fairytale for Nadal as Djokovic cruises through

It always seemed like it would be a bridge too far, and despite the Paris crowd urging him on at his beloved Roland-Garros, so it proved as Rafael Nadal could not get past old foe Novak Djokovic in the second round of the Olympic Games at Roland-Garros on Monday.

On a hot day on Court Philippe Chatrier, the scene of many of their greatest battles, the top seed emerged victorious, 6-1, 6-4, dominating the first set and then holding off a Nadal fightback in the second, finishing off with an ace as he booked his place in the third round.

“I’m very relieved,” Djokovic said. “It looked like everything was going my way at 6-1, 4-0. I got maybe a little too confident at 4-1, played a sloppy service game. You can’t give away chances to Nadal because he’s going to come back, especially on this court, with this crowd. It was very tough.

“Crucial game at 4-4, last game with old balls, I broke and then serving into the wind…I did well with the last couple of serves but wow, it was a very, very close encounter, especially in the second set. But I’m very pleased with the way I played. (…) It’s unfortunate for him that he wasn’t at his best, but I did everything I possibly could to make him uncomfortable on the court.”

Djokovic races ahead as Nadal starts slowly

The fact that both players were able to make it to the Olympics is something of a miracle in itself; Djokovic recovering from knee surgery during the second week of the French Open to make the Wimbledon final, while Nadal, who hardly played in 2023, has been slowly recovering full fitness after hip, stomach and back issues.

This was their 61st meeting and Djokovic now leads 31-29, although he will know from the way Nadal fought in the second set that the Spaniard, even at 38, may not be done yet.

Nadal shows his heart, and his fight

With Nadal having played twice already in Paris, once in singles and once in doubles, Djokovic went into the match as favourite and the first set was totally one-sided, Nadal struggling for rhythm while the top seed eased ahead in style.

At 6-1, 4-0, the match was heading toward a demolition but suddenly, Nadal found his game. After holding serve to get on the board, he broke back for 2-4 when Djokovic double-faulted and then, after holding again, he broke for a second time with the help of a stupendous point in which he smashed back a Djokovic smash before ripping a forehand pass for a winner to make it 4-4.

If Nadal could have held in the ninth game, he might have been able to push it to a decider but Djokovic regrouped, breaking at the second time of asking and then, when serving for the match, held his nerve to finish it off with an ace.

Nadal: “I was not able to put him in difficult conditions”

Nadal did not hide his disappointment. “That’s a bad performance, I didn’t play well,” he told reporters.

“I was not able to put him in difficult positions. I was not able to have enough quality shots, enough quality movements so he was playing almost all the time from comfortable positions and he played quite well.

“Playing Novak without creating damage to him and without having the legs of 20 years ago, it is almost impossible.”

Djokovic will face either Matteo Arnaldi or Dominik Koepfer in the third round while Nadal will bid for glory alongside Carlos Alcaraz in the doubles event.

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