One of the greatest rivalries in sports history just wrote its last chapter, with Novak Djokovic beating Rafael Nadal at the 2024 Six Kings Slam.
John McEnroe and Bjorn Borg, Andre Agassi and Pete Sampras, Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova, Serena Williams and Venus Williams. There have been many great tennis rivalries over the years, but on the ATP Tour, one stands above the rest, and it’s that of Djokovic and Nadal.
The two played a total of 60 times in official Tour-level matches, the most any men have ever played against each other. The H2H? As close as possible, with Djokovic leading the H2H in official matches 31-29.
It was clear that wouldn’t change in their last-ever meeting, as that took place at an exhibition event held during the Riyadh Season – the Six Kings Slam.
It wasn’t another final match between the two. Instead, it was a third-round match, something they were not used to during their tennis careers, as those are played only at the Olympics.
But here they were. Walking onto the tennis court at The Venue in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, both ready for one last battle. Their last meeting went easily the way of Djokovic, as the Serbian won 6-1, 6-4 at the Paris Olympics.
That match took place at Roland Garros, the venue where Nadal won 14 Grand Slam titles and the venue where he had the highest chance to succeed at this stage of his tennis career.
He didn’t, and on a hard court in Riyadh, his chances were even lower. The Spaniard hasn’t won a set on the hard court against his greatest rival since the 2013 US Open final, which he won in four sets.
He certainly wanted to change that statistic in their last-ever match, but it was an uphill battle, as the odds were stacked against the 22-time Grand Slam champion.
Early in the match, Djokovic reminded him of that, as he dominated the opening two games, taking an early 2-0 lead. The Serbian player then missed out on a break point to lead already 4-1, but he was precise the next time he got a chance to break.
Djokovic won 12 of the last 16 points of the first set to win it 6-2, possibly sending this legendary rivalry into its last-ever set. With his first-game break in the second set, Djokovic made another step to ending the rivalry with a two-set win.
But like he did so many times in his tennis career, Nadal refused to give up. He broke back, and the retiring Spaniard even had three break point chances to lead already 4-2 in the second set.
He couldn’t convert those and in the following game, he had to save two break points himself. He did that, leading 4-3 in the second set and seemingly improving his level towards the end of the match.
In the following game, Nadal threatened to break again, leading 30-15 on his opponent’s serve, but Djokovic then went on to win eight consecutive points to break the Spaniard’s serve and get to a match point at 6-2, 5-4, and 40-30.
But again, Nadal refused to give up. Against all odds, he broke back, and after an incredible forehand down the line at the start of the eleventh game, he even brought out his famous ‘Vamos!’ and a fist pump to celebrate, later winning the game to lead 6-5.
The second set reached the tie-break, but Nadal couldn’t complete the inspired second-set comeback, as Djokovic had the last laugh and won this match in two sets, 6-2, 7-6(5), ending the greatest men’s tennis rivalry of all time.