World no.1 and defending Roland Garros champion, Novak Djokovic clashes with 13-time French Open winner Rafael Nadal in the quarter-finals in Paris on Tuesday.
Rafael Nadal will meet Novak Djokovic in the quarter-finals#RolandGarros
— Roland-Garros (@rolandgarros) May 29, 2022
This encounter has the magnitude of a Grand Slam final, a stage where these two tennis icons have met nine times before. They have also gone head-to-head a total 17 times at a major and this will be their 10th rodeo at Roland Garros. Overall, this is to be the 59th time Nadal and Djokovic share a court.
This contest is the first of its kind, in the sense that it will be contested by two men each with 20+ major titles and 300 Grand Slam wins apiece. The majority of their prior meetings have taken place in the final or semis, and their forthcoming battle is just the sixth time these two vastly-experienced individuals face off in the quarter-finals.
The first on-court rendezvous between these two athletes came 16 years ago, at this very tournament and at the same stage they are due to meet this evening. At the 2006 event, both competitors were yet to reach their 21st birthdays and they had their entire careers ahead of them. Present day they are both aged 35 (with Nadal turning 36 on Friday) and the pair have won 41 Grand Slams between them.
Being the 59th time Djokovic and Nadal face one another, questions have been raised whether this could be one of, if not the very last meeting between the two phenomena. Nadal has battled with persistent injury troubles in recent years and it remains to be seen how long the veteran Spaniard can continue for at the level he has competed at for almost two decades.
This one’s a big deal 🥵
— ATP Tour (@atptour) May 31, 2022
It’s the 1️⃣st time in men’s tennis that a match features…
…two players with at least 20 Grand Slam titles
…two players with at least 1000 match wins
…two players with at least 300 Grand Slam wins
Can’t wait 🙌🍿 @rolandgarros | #RolandGarros pic.twitter.com/aoIUW3mBKN
Djokovic has not dropped a single set on his way to a 13th consecutive RG last-eight appearance, and he has played two-and-a-half hours fewer than Nadal at this year’s tournament. Nadal won in straight sets in each of his opening three games before he came out on top in a gruelling five-set thriller with Felix Auger-Aliassime, who is coached by Nadal’s uncle Toni.
19 of Nadal’s 28 victories over Djokovic have come on clay and he ousted the Serb seven times in their nine previous clashes at Roland Garros. In last year’s semifinals Djokovic scored just his second win over Nadal at the Paris major, and he went on to hoist La Coupe des Mousquetaires for a second time.
Elsewhere in the Men’s singles draw, fourth seed Stefanos Tsitsipas lost out to Denmark’s Holger Rune, 19, who reached his first Grand Slam quarter-final. World no.2 Daniil Medvedev also crashed out in the fourth round as Marin Cilic progressed to the RG quarters for the first time since 2018. Cilic is pitted against no.7 seed Andrey Rublev in the last-eight.
Nadal’s countryman Carlos Alcaraz advanced to his maiden French Open quarter-final, just his second major quarter, and the 19-year-old takes on third seed Alexander Zverev prior to the Djokovic-Nadal tie.
Last 8 locked in at #RolandGarros:
— Tennis TV (@TennisTV) May 30, 2022
🇷🇸 Djokovic vs Nadal 🇪🇸
🇩🇪 Zverev vs Alcaraz 🇪🇸
🇳🇴 Ruud v Rune 🇩🇰
Rublev v Cilic 🇭🇷
Who makes your final four?
Nadal was in attendance at the Stade de France on Saturday night as Real Madrid clinched its 14th UEFA Champions League title. Now, the Spaniard has sights set on his own La Decimocuarta in the form of a record 14th Roland Garros crown.
