Matches against Nadal and Djokovic

The list of players who dare to play against Rafael Nadal or Novak Djokovic winning a specialty is surprisingly short.

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In 2015, Sebastian Prödl, a player for the Austrian national team and at that time in the service of Werder Bremen, was awarded the football motto of the year: “Munich is like visiting the dentist. Everyone has to go there. It can be quite painful ”. That there is little or nothing to gain from such an attitude: there is no question about it. If you look at the excitement of most opponents in Grand Slam tournaments in recent years when it comes to Rafael Nadal or Novak Djokovic, the soccer catchphrase can easily be transferred to tennis.

To stay in the picture: Dominic Thiem gives BVB back in the years under Jürgen Klopp, when the Dortmunders went to Bayern with other claims besides losing decently. Thiem beat Djokovic at the French Open last year and Nadal in Melbourne in early 2020.
After all: Stefanos Tsitsipas hit hard on Friday. He shouldn’t have lost the first two sets against Djokovic so smoothly, in the next two rounds Tsitsipas’ perseverance was rewarded. In the end there were no doubts about the winner.

But the rest, if you take a closer look at the current French Open? You can confidently cover the blanket of silence over knights Ymer, Berankis, Galan, also Khachanov (with Djokovic) and Gerasimov, MacDonald, Travaglia and Korda (with Nadal). With Jannik Sinner there may be hope for the future, Pablo Carreño Busta, on the other hand, may show a murderous instinct against a Daniel Altmaier. But not against a Novak Djokovic, who offers gifts in the best donor humor. Diego Schwartzman put in the bones his five hours against Thiem, towards the end of the third quarter the Argentine played against Nadal with the courage of despair. And temporarily successful.

Zverev against Djokovic last year

It is difficult to assess Alexander Zverev, the last match of the German number one against Nadal or Djokovic with a major took place at Roland Garros in 2019. Novak Djokovic won in three straight sets. The German number one first played against Nadal in a Grand Slam tournament, in 2017 at the Australian Open he exceeded five sets. By the way, in 2017, Brother Mischa set an example in place of how big names can be handled: with his win against then world number one Andy Murray.

In recent months, Roger Federer had to realize that things could be different: in Australia, the maestro overcame John Millman and Tennys Sandgren with force, and Grigor Dimitrov beat him at the US Open just over a year ago. . Federer wins on all surfaces and at any time of day, the first victory over the Swiss. Because the mentioned players did not calculate from the beginning with the immediate trip home.

To be honest, Roger Federer has gotten a little closer to the rest of the field, or vice versa. For a time, Federer was the dentist his colleagues were least likely to see. But Djokovic and Nadal have long taken over. Novak Djokovic, however, will by no means enter Sunday’s final, even if he lost the last three matches on the ashes against Rafael Nadal.

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Nadal Rafael

Djokovic Novak