Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic share a light moment on court during the recently concluded Australian Open. (Getty Images)
Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic have had a great rivalry and most of their matches have been a spectacle for tennis fans.
Their head-to-head is tantalizingly poised at 30-29 in favor of the Serbian and it shows how close the battle for supremacy is between two of the stalwarts of this generation.
An interesting incident took place during the Australian Open final in 2012. Nadal met Djokovic in a mouth-watering clash of the titans. Djokovic was looking forward to successfully defending his title. Nadal had won the title back in 2009 and was aiming to win once again.
The Spaniard took the first set 7-5 but Djokovic came back strongly in the second set. Djokovic was leading 5-2 in the second set as Nadal was serving to stay afloat. The score was 40-30 in favor of Nadal. He hit a decent first serve but Djokovic replied with an inch-perfect forehand to give his nemesis no chance to move.
Nadal waited for a while and raised his hand to challenge his serve. He felt that his serve was out and a fault would mean that Djokovic wouldn’t get the point. Djokovic wasn’t amused with the challenge. When the replay arrived, it showed that Nadal’s serve was in by the barest of margins. Djokovic won the point and went on to win the match 5-7, 6-4, 6-2, 6-7, 7-5. The match lasted 5 hours and 53 minutes and is the longest Grand Slam final of all time.
Rafael Nadal has announced that he will give the Montreal hardcourt event a miss this time due to the same abdominal strain which forced him to withdraw from Wimbledon last month ahead of the semi-final match against Nick Kyrgios.
The world No. 3 has managed to win the ATP 1000 event in Montreal on five occasions. He won’t be challenging for his sixth title at this year’s event though.
“I have been practicing for a while now without serving and started with serves four days ago. Everything has been going well, however yesterday, after my normal practice, I felt a slight bother on my abdominal and today it was still there,” Nadal said in a statement.
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