Nadal wins over Djokovic for nearly a decade have been rare.
It’s Djokovic 6-5 Nadal in the last decade in their slam meetings.
Nadal still leads the slam head to head 9-6.
Djokovic has won 14 of their last 18 meetings since the US Open Final in 2013. Nadal last beat Djokovic in a Grand Slam nearly 6 years ago at the French Open in 2014. Djokovic has won the last three Grand Slam meetings since then on the clay at the French Open in 2015, the grass at the Championship in 2018 and the hardcourts at the Australian Open in 2019.
Nadal fortuitously for him has not to face Djokovic in any of the 5 Grand Slam wins he’s recorded since he last beat Djokovic in a Grand Slam at the French Open in 2014.
Fortuitously?
Nothing fortuitous about it. Nadal still has the best head to head slam record. Djokovic has won the last two but Nadal was very harshly punished by the archaic Wimbledon rules in 2018 which have since been changed regarding the roof closure.
On hard courts, particularly faster ones like Australia, Djokovic is certainly favourite. At the end of the day Nadal still leads Djokovic 9-6 in their head to head meetings at slams. Nadal is certainly much further past his peak than Djokovic is and has been for the past few years.
Federer is having knee surgery and will miss the clay court season
Think Federer will retire at the end of the year, he will drop over 3000 ranking points now before Wimbledon. He will struggle to make the top 4 for the WImbledon seedings now and I think it’s when Federer slides down the rankings that he will now struggle.
Djokovic has tested positive for Covid-19. The Adria tournament has been a liability. Coric, Dimitrov and now Djokovic and possibly Zverev going by his twitter.
Rafa not going to defend his US Open title by the looks of things.
Think Federer announced a few weeks back that he’s not playing again in 2020. They should call it off for the year.
I’d agree, restart in 2021.
Rafa officially confirming he won’t be competing at the US Open.
David Mercer has passed away. RIP
Djokovic has a very handy draw for the US Open.
Tsitsipas/Zverev the only real name you could see troubling him on his side and the earliest he can meet either of those is the semi-final.
The other side of the draw looks more open. I quite like Rublev @ 40/1 ew
Ideally you’d like to have seen Djokovic have a bit of a tougher run but it seems inevitable he will win with that draw.
Zverev has a tough first round match against Kevin Anderson. Zverev is mentally weak, Murray showed that when the play earlier this week. Djokovic is the clear favorite and should win out
Britain’s Andy Murray won his first slam match since 2018 coming from 2 sets down to beat some Japanese lad today.
Tsitsipas went out last night, hard to see anyone stopping Djokovic before the final now.
Zverev is still going but unless he brings something differently to the table mentally then he has no chance with Djokovic.
The other side of the draw looks a lot better. Berrettin and Rublev is the standout R4 tie, I backed Rublev at 40/1 ew before the tournament. He has a difficult path with Berrettini, Medvedev and Thiem to get past if he is to make the final but I think the guy has huge potential.
Thiem and FAA should also be a good tie. FAA got rid of Murray in straight sets. It’s a shame so many big names are missing, you’d really like to see a full field there and Djokovic given a proper test or two before the final.
Djokovic in bother here
He will win handy. He does this against weaker opponents, lets his game slide but inevitably finds his form after a little scare and win comfortably.