NNobody lives from the past and fewer athletes of the magnitude of Novak Djokovic. Half an hour after his tenth title at the Australian Open, the Serbian was already thinking at Roland Garros, the next ‘Grand Slam’ on the calendar.
Now Rafael Nadal awaits Novak on his land and the Balkan knows it, as does his entourage. It was confirmed by the closest person, which in this case is his first coach, Goran Ivanisevic. “The handball match is tied at 22. Now we have played at our house and Roland Garros is coming, which is Nadal’s ground. He will always be a favorite there as long as he plays, no matter how incredible Carlos Alcaraz is. He has won 14 Rafa and Novak are feeding each other”, reflects the Croatian, who knows better than anyone the difficulty of what the two racket colossi are doing. There was a day when he won a big one, at Wimbledon 2001.
Now we have played at our home and Roland Garros is coming, which is Nadal’s home ground. He will always be a favorite there as long as he plays, no matter how incredible Carlos Alcaraz is. It is that he has won 14 times. Rafa and Novak are feeding each other
The Spaniard and the Serbian were going to meet at the Dubai Open 500 (February 27 to March 4). They will not finally do it due to the grade 2 injury in Nadal’s iliac psoas, that he hopes to be at his best for the European clay court tour.
In 2018, with a similar but grade 1 mishap, the tennis player wanted to return a month later in the Acapulco tournament and it broke again. At 36, the Spanish tennis player does not want to risk a clay campaign that he was lost in part in 2022 due to a cracked rib. The Spaniard was not in the Masters 1,000 in Monte Carlo or in Barcelona and has a margin for some points that are presumed necessary to avoid falling further in the world ranking.
Rafa, who today is sixth on the ATP lists, will subtract the 500 points from the Acapulco title at the end of the month. and he could lose 600 more if, as it seems, he is absent from the TMS in Indian Wells where he reached the final in the last edition.
Montecarlo, the reunion
Given that Novak Djokovic You cannot enter the United States because you have not been vaccinated against the coronavirus, The two greats of the racket will not meet again in a draw until the Monte Carlo tournament, which takes place from April 9 to 16. then both players They will be in the same box again at the Mutua Madrid Open and in Rome. Although what really matters is what happens from May 28 to June 11 at the French Open.
At that time, the tiebreaker in Grand Slam will be at stake and the australian champion He knows that he has already defeated his great rival twice in his lair: in the 2015 quarterfinals and in the 2021 semifinals. Ivanisevic, just in case, already warns that his player has “two or three years of good tennis left for him.” the way you take care of yourself.”
The ATP certifies the domain in big titles of the ‘Big Three’
The men’s circuit, through its social networks, made a comparison of the great titles won by the ‘Big three’ of the racket. In a statistic that includes the ‘Grand Slam’, Masters 1,000, ATP Finals and Olympic Games, Djokovic has 66 to Nadal’s 59 and Roger Federer’s 54.
