It is now tradition that on the Sunday of the Roland Garros final, a number of Spaniards go to the complex that hosts the tournament in the Bois de Bolonia, on the outskirts of Paris. They will carry flags, t-shirts of the Spanish team and will refine their throats to delight in every point played in the Philippe Chatrier, where more than 15,000 people normally enter. This year, those groups of Spaniards will not be able to attend the tournament and only 1,000 lucky ones will join a party in which the usual one will not be missing.
The greatest tradition of the Grand Slam Parisian is not the reddish color of its land, nor the lack of roof and lights that has been corrected that year. Neither is his Cup of the Musketeers nor the history of his name, coined by the French aviator Roland Garros. The most important tradition of the Gallic tournament is that one of the contenders is called Rafael Nadal. For the fourth consecutive year, For the thirteenth time in his sixteen participations, the Spanish tennis player will be one of the two players who will compete for the title of champion. And it has never fallen. He has never seen how the famous man on duty, whether it was Zinedine Zidane, Andre Agassi or Guga Kuerten, handed the cup to another player.
To hold this constant, you will have face one of his nemesis and the tennis player with whom he maintains the greatest rivalry, at least in number of matches, in the history of tennis. Novak Djokovic, four seasons later, returns to a final in Paris. The Serbian, who dominates Nadal in the face to face by 29 to 26 victories, represents the great threat to the Spanish. Because it is the only obstacle, because he is one of the two players, together with Robin Soderling in 2009, who has managed to beat him on this track, and because Nadal has not defeated him in a Grand Slam since the 2014 Roland Garros final.
Since that day, when Nadal lifted his ninth Roland Garros, Djokovic has ruled the rivalry with ten wins to just three for the Balearic Islands, although only one of them in Paris, in the quarterfinals of 2015. That match was one of the few in which Nadal has not been a favorite in his history at Roland Garros, along with the semifinal of his debut against Roger Federer.
During their careers, They have met seven times in the Philippe Chatrier and each game has left something special. In 2006 it was the uncorking of the rivalry in a decaffeinated match by a young Djokovic who was fading between physical problems. Some back discomfort forced him to retire when he was already going two sets to zero against a Nadal who would later prevail in the final against Federer.
Rafa’s sextet against Nole in Paris
They met again a year later in the semifinals and the Serbian, this time without problems in between, gave up in three clear sets against Nadal, who would lift his third Roland Garros two days later. The hat trick of triumphs would come in 2008, when again in the semifinals, a Nadal in full swing overwhelmed the Serbian, who at that time had just won his first Grand Slam in Australia.
To see them greet each other again in the Chatrier network, we would have to wait four years, in the final of 2012, which was passed by the rain and which had to be defined on a Monday due to the stops. Nadal triumphed, of course, just like in the 2013 semifinals, famous for Djokovic’s terrible mistake. The Serbian, with 4-3 in favor and serving in the fifth set, had a simple shot at the net to get closer to 5-3 that put him very close to defeating Nadal for the first time in Paris. However, he lost his balance, touched the net and therefore lost the point. He would end up delivering the match in more than four and a half hours by 9-7.
Nadal would complete the sextet of triumphs against Djokovic by defeating him in the 2014 final, but he relented in 2015, when he was in a crisis of results and mentality that made him not reach Roland Garros as a favorite for the first time since 2005. If he avenges After that misstep, Nadal will equal Roger Federer in Grand Slam trophies for the first time, leaving Djokovic three behind. “I don’t think about that, I think about winning Roland Garros,” said Nadal, who this year will not see the line of Spaniards in the stands, but will see the champion trophy up close.
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