Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic developed a powerful rivalry between Roland Garros 2006 and Cincinnati 2009. They performed 19 matches on Tour, with Nadal successful 14 instances. Nadal and Djokovic have been pondering of enjoying on the identical aspect of the courtroom, and it ought to come on the 2009 Cincinnati Masters.
On the final second, Nadal determined to skip the doubles and deal with his singles marketing campaign after being sidelined for 2 months with knee issues. Coping with tendinitis, Nadal suffered the Roland Garros fourth-round loss to Robin Soderling in 4 units, experiencing the primary loss in Paris and lacking the subsequent Wimbledon.
Returning to the courtroom in Montreal, Rafa beat David Ferrer and Philipp Petzschner to succeed in the quarters earlier than dropping to Juan Martin Del Potro 7-6 6-1 after dropping floor within the second set. The Spaniard went to Cincinnati and beat Andreas Seppi within the first spherical earlier than overcoming Paul-Henri Mathieu and Tomas Berdych to satisfy within the semi-final.
Regardless of a dependable efficiency in opposition to the Czech, Nadal’s degree was not sufficient to problem Novak Djokovic within the battle for the ultimate. Djokovic beat Nadal 6-1 6-4 in a single hour and 32 minutes. He performed at a excessive degree from begin to end to finish the dropping streak in opposition to the Spaniard and proceed on the title path.
Novak was the extra aggressive participant, wanting to maintain the factors on his racket and dictate the tempo. Djokovic solid the benefit on the shorter factors by as much as 4 pictures and saved the one break level to maintain the strain on the opposite aspect.
Novak obtained three breaks to regulate the scoreboard and beat Rafa in the identical spherical for the second 12 months in a row.
Mouratoglou opens up on Nole
Patrick Mouratoglou lately said that Novak Djokovic’s single-most essential objective was to take the lead over Rafael Nadal within the all-time Grand Slam race.
“There is among the most attention-grabbing issues within the historical past of our sport that’s going down in the mean time, which is that this race,” Mouratoglou stated in a video on his Instagram web page. “At this stage of his profession, Novak has one objective, which is to win as many Grand Slams as doable as a result of he is right into a race with Rafa.
He would not have many possibilities, he has solely 2 per 12 months, as a result of in the mean time he would not play the Australian Open and the US Open. So in an effort to be actually environment friendly in these huge tournaments, you want matches, you must be within the rhythm, and you must win matches. He is missing that for the second,” he added.
