Novak Djokovic should thank Rafael Nadal for making him the greatest

Opinion

Sports News Correspondent

The Spaniard will finally hang up his racket next month after a glittering career that featured one of the sport's defining rivalries

October 10, 2024 3:20 p.m(Updated 3:21 p.m)

It's hard to overstate the size of Rafael Nadal's legacy, but calling him the greatest tennis player of all time would be a given.

That's not to say Nadal, who has confirmed he will retire at the Davis Cup next month at the age of 38, wasn't close. But few will admit that his 22 Grand Slam titles are somehow greater than Serena Williams' 23 or Novak Djokovic's 24.

However, Nadal's 22 are unique. His 14 French Open titles and 112 match wins at Roland Garros are unmatched at a single Grand Slam. Only three men have ever beaten him there. No one, not even 10-time Australian Open champion Djokovic, has dominated a single tournament in the same way, and it is hard to imagine anyone ever doing so again.

But it is telling that Djokovic is one of those three men to beat Nadal at Roland Garros, and the only one to do so twice. As Nadal was busy battling Roger Federer for supremacy, Djokovic – and to a lesser extent Andy Murray – emerged as disruptors of the duopoly. The Big Three and then the Big Four were formed, and for a time men's tennis was a weekly unscripted Marvel movie, Valhalla for sports fans.

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Within this quartet, each rivalry had its own tension, and Nadal vs. Federer will always be the iconic rivalry for sports fans of a certain age, but Nadal vs. Djokovic was arguably the most famous.

In the rearview mirror, this match should appear alongside Borg vs. McEnroe, Evert vs. Navratilova and Sampras vs. Agassi as one of the definitive tennis rivalries.

“I would like to thank the entire tennis industry, all the people involved in this sport, my long-time colleagues, especially my great rivals,” Nadal said.

“I spent many, many hours with them and experienced many moments that I will remember for the rest of my life.”

For the avoidance of doubt, Nadal's elaborate farewell video accompanying these words was edited to old match footage and shows handshakes with Federer and then with Djokovic.

At 60 years old, the Serbo-Spanish head-to-head is the most played duel of the Open era in men's tennis. Only the 80 games that Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova have played against each other surpasses it.

And considering that Nadal and Djokovic played in an era where tennis was televised wall-to-wall and replayed galore on social media, it's even more deeply etched in our collective memory. Nine of their encounters were Grand Slam finals, a number that few people achieve individually. As far as dance partners go, they couldn't have asked for one better than the next.

Rafael Nadal's remarkable career in numbers

• 22 – Grand Slam title
• 14 – French Open titles, most by any player at any Slam
• 112 – Wins at Roland Garros
• 4 – Losses at Roland Garros
• 4 – US Open title
• 2 – Wimbledon title
• 2 – Australian Open title
• 13 – years between Nadal's two titles in Melbourne, 2009 and 2022
• 30 – Appearances in Grand Slam finals
• 92 – Tour-level singles title
• 2 – Olympic gold medals, one in singles and one in doubles
• 36 – ATP Masters 1000 title
• 4 – Davis Cup title with Spain
• 12 – titles at the Barcelona Open, including 11 at the Monte-Carlo Masters
• 81 – consecutive games won on clay from April 2005 to May 2007
• 209 – Weeks at number one in the world
• 5 – Years ended as world number one
• 912 – consecutive weeks in the top 10 between April 2005 and March 2023, more than any other man
• 24 – Wins over Roger Federer from 40 games
• 29 – Wins over Novak Djokovic from 60 games
• 1,080 – games won at tour level

It was so close too. The grand finals went 5-4 in Nadal's favor, but overall Djokovic won 31 of his 60 meetings, was at the top in 2015 and never relinquished the lead, but was never more than three ahead either. Nadal's clay-court expertise, while occasionally surpassed by Djokovic's all-ground skills, was enough to keep him at bay, even as his body began to fail and his opponent's somehow seemed to grow stronger.

It's a shame that they only met once (because there have been a few) at the tournament where Nadal will make his final farewell, and that meeting took place in 2009, when Djokovic had just won his first Grand Slam on clay of Benidorm was no opponent and won only nine games for Serbia.

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That was one of four straight victories Nadal won leading up to the 2009 Davis Cup, a tournament he has won four times. (Some say five: Spain also won it in 2008 and Nadal was in the quarter and semi-finals but missed the final due to injury.)

It's a tournament he has, wherever possible, revered almost as much as the French Open, often valuing national pride over private effort, a shared value with Djokovic that is anachronistic: In an increasingly crowded tennis calendar, the Davis has Cup places a high value on opt-in rather than opt-out for most players.

Nadal will have Carlos Alcaraz alongside him in Team Spain next month, but how often he plays now that his idol is no longer there remains to be seen.

However, a wonderful drive into the sunset cannot be ruled out. Spain have a rare strong field at the eight-team finals in Malaga and have a balanced squad.

The format sees the two lower-ranked singles players compete, followed by the two higher-ranked players, before a deciding doubles match if necessary.

Nadal, currently ranked 158th in the world, will play as Spain's No. 2, making him a fierce opponent for the likes of Botic van de Zandschulp in the quarter-finals or perhaps Denis Shapovalov in the semi-finals.

These new three-a-side formats have generally favored teams with a strong doubles lineup, and while Spain does not have an established pair, Marcel Granollers is half of the world No. 1 and played with three different partners in the group stage.

They actually lost once, to the French, but it was a dead game decided by three narrow tie-breaks, and Pablo Carreno Busta is probably not captain David Ferrer's first choice to partner Granollers.

The 11,000-strong crowd will be rooting for Nadal alongside him, but Alcaraz is probably the safer pairing in the circumstances. The retiring legend probably won't care as long as Spain wins. That's what Nadal has always wanted most: to win.