Bonus Feature #3: Worst 10 Djokovic-Nadal Matches

Even the golden rivalry had its duds. Here, the Definitive, Absolutely Correct list of the 10 worst. (Again, that title lasts until one person disagrees with me, thereby shattering my confidence.)

Screenshot: Australian Open YouTube Channel

In December, I ranked the 10 best Djokovic-Nadal matches. That list was a hell of a challenge to put together—the top few were easy, but Rafa and Novak have played so many quasi-epics that filling out 6-10 was just short of a crapshoot. Still, it was highly enjoyable revisiting so many classics from my all-time-favorite tennis rivalry.

This is a masochistic post by comparison. Djokovic-Nadal is a rivalry so good that even their worst matches probably wouldn’t feel like a letdown if not for the high standard they had previously set, but that doesn’t erase the disappointment. Why bother reliving that? Well, we’re through 20 chapters of The Golden Rivalry, so rather than keep pushing to the glimmering star in the distance (the 2018 Wimbledon semifinal), it felt like a good time for an interlude. And I’ve already ranked the top 10 matches between these two, so instead of being creative and coming up with a fun new list, I figured I’d drag down everyone reading this by forcing them to remember the crappies matches between Djokovic and Nadal. Then asking them to donate their hard-earned money to someone posting non-paywalled content. (That’s Venmo at Owen-Lewis-43 and Paypal @thegoldenrivalry, mind you.) I’m making a compelling case here, right?!

Another reason why I’m writing this is that revisiting and editing old material can get tiring. Like I wrote in my intro post, I finished this book in mid-2022, and though I’ve written a lot of new material and edited out other parts, I missed writing an entirely new piece. I’m in the middle of a weird week right now—I have a lot to do in the second half, but those deadlines are far enough away that work isn’t very pressing at the moment. (What’s that you say? I could work now and relax later? Clearly you don’t know me at all—I’d wouldn’t be caught dead planning my time effectively.) So, a surprise bonus feature to satisfy my urge to write something new.

As thanks to everyone I haven’t bored or depressed into closing the tab—let’s get started, shall we?

10. Nadal def. Djokovic 7-5, 6-2 in the 2010 ATP Finals round-robin stage

The second set of this match is pretty funny. Djokovic has visibly tapped out mentally, and some of his misses are quite something. Nadal’s straight-set win here scrapes the bottom of this list because Djokovic had cut gluten out of his diet at this point and was coming off a competitive loss to Rafa at the 2010 U.S. Open, so in theory, this match had the potential to be a battle and loses points for failing to live up to that.

Tennis TV did a compilation of all the Djokovic-Nadal matches at the World Tour Finals recently, and for the section dedicated to this match you can almost feel the video-maker thinking, damn, I’ve got nothing to work with here. At one point, Nadal yanks Djokovic off the court with an angled crosscourt forehand, Novak lines up his trademark backhand down the line, and not only does he hit the ball wide of his target, he hits it wide of the doubles alley. In another highlight video featuring the best point Djokovic and Nadal had played against each other every year (outside the majors), they posted a fairly benign point from this match that ended with a Djokovic volley winner and added the caption, “They didn’t play much this year [winky emoji]”. Oh, but they did, Tennis TV. You just didn’t have the rights to their U.S. Open match.

9. Nadal def. Djokovic 6-2, 6-3 in the 2007 Rome quarterfinals

This match is dazzling at times because of Nadal’s movement, which is fully on display in a couple completely ridiculous points. (You can watch those points at the start of the highlights below.) Outside of that, though, this was a Rafa who had already become one with the clay already against a Djokovic who was just too inexperienced to have a hope of matching him.

8. Tie: Djokovic def. Nadal 6-3, 6-4 in the 2013 Beijing and World Tour Finals championship matches

I’m usually against ties, but since these two matches had identical scorelines, this felt appropriate. When I wrote about them in Chapter 13, if I left anything out, it was some frustration over Nadal’s performances. Coming off his huge win in the 2013 U.S. Open final, his second straight win against Djokovic on hard court, Rafa was, in theory, well-positioned to continue having success in the matchup. But he broke serve just once in these two matches (and didn’t have a break point outside that one game) and was generally well below par. Per Tennis Abstract, across the two matches, Nadal hit a combined—cover your eyes, Rafa fans—17 winners and 54 unforced errors. Though watching Djokovic cruise to victory in these matches was gratifying given his struggles in 2013, these matches were far from riveting. They could be even lower (higher? I’m not sure which word to use on a top-10 list with a negative connotation), but they were still impressive athletically, with some highlight-reel worthy points, so these matches are saved from being listed among the worst of the worst.

6. Djokovic def. Nadal 6-2, 6-3 in the 2009 Paris semifinal

Djokovic vs. a flat Nadal on a hard court has always been a terrible combination. As we covered way back in Chapter 3, Rafa begun 2009 at a furious pace, but the brilliant Madrid semifinal with Djokovic that year, an entry at the very top of the list of best Novak-Rafa matches, pretty much sidelined peak Nadal until 2010. He didn’t do much in this match besides act as a backboard for Djokovic’s aggressive groundstrokes, and on the quick, low-bouncing Parisian hard court, Djokovic cracked those defenses easily. Zero tension in this one. Exchange this with Novak’s wins over Rafa in the 2008 Indian Wells semifinals or 2009 Cincinnati semis if you want—they’re all essentially the same match.

5. Djokovic def. Nadal 6-3, 6-3 in the 2015 ATP Finals semifinal

I hate writing any result after the round-robin stage at the ATP Finals. Djokovic beat Federer in the 2015 ATP Finals…final. How stupid does that sound? I usually get out of it by replacing “final” with “championship match,” but using “last four” instead of “semifinal” in a heading felt too casual, so I’m stuck with the repetition.

Anyway. At this point in 2015, Djokovic was pummeling Nadal regularly and everyone in the tennis world knew what was going to happen in this match. Rafa did well to make the semis of this tournament, going 3-0 in the group stage, but with Djokovic at his apex, there was no chance this one was going to be competitive. Though Nadal acquitted himself fine—it wasn’t a disastrous performance—he failed to produce a break point as Djokovic rolled over him yet again. It’s about as drama-free a match as Novak and Rafa can play, and it makes the list over the 2015 Monte-Carlo semifinal (same scoreline) because that match had competitive moments and an absolutely brilliant seventh game. I’d even argue that the 2015 Beijing final, which Djokovic won by an even more lopsided score, has a better highlight reel. Nadal tried to generate offense with his backhand in that match, and though it didn’t get him anywhere, we got some fun rallies out of it. You can also say that 2016 Doha was worse than this match since it had the most one-sided scoreline of all, but that’s probably as well as Djokovic has ever played and Nadal wasn’t beating himself. I think the 2015 ATP Finals match was the worst of all worlds—2015 had already killed some of the enthusiasm for the matchup and Djokovic won easily without having to play at a historically great level. That said, we’re splitting hairs and any of the 2015 best-of-three matches can realistically be on this list.

4. Nadal def. Djokovic 6-3, 6-1 in the 2012 Monte-Carlo final

Djokovic’s grandfather had died earlier in this tournament, and while Novak impressively made the final anyway, he just didn’t have the mental reserves to compete as he usually would in the final. Nadal never really faced any adversity in this match—it’s as easily and smoothly as he’s ever beaten Djokovic—and their rematch in Rome a few weeks later was a much better representation of where each man stood on the clay in 2012. Since Djokovic had won seven straight over Nadal going into this match, I suppose it gets a couple points for being meaningful, but that’s the best I can say for the fourth-worst Djokovic-Nadal match. (That’s not entirely true: there was one stunning point in the second set in which Nadal defends, defends, defends, then gets a lob over Djokovic and finishes with an inside-out forehand winner. Only problem? That put him ahead 6-3, 4-0.)

3. Djokovic def. Nadal 7-5, 6-3, 6-1 in the 2015 Roland-Garros quarterfinal

I wouldn’t blame you if you had this ranked first. Nadal at Roland-Garros had such a reputation, his history at the event maybe the best of any athlete anywhere, and to watch him as such a diminished version of himself in this match is just not very fun. But for me, this match gets the bronze medal of awfulness because, after falling behind 4-0 in the first set, Nadal made a nice comeback and the first set ended up being pretty fun. Even the second set wasn’t atrocious—Rafa stayed on serve until 3-all and made Djokovic work to close it out. As a whole, though, this match is remembered most not for Djokovic finally breaking the duck against Nadal at Roland-Garros, but for Rafa looking faded. Even the most voracious Djokovic fans seem aware that Nadal wasn’t himself in this match, and as such, it doesn’t come up very much. That’s probably for the best.

2. Nadal def. Djokovic 6-0, 6-2, 7-5 in the 2020 Roland-Garros final

This was supposed to be so great. Set aside the fact that Djokovic was the favorite and had just won Rome, this match was supposed to pit an in-form Djokovic against a Nadal who had slipped just a little bit from his best at Roland-Garros. The match being indoors was thought to favor Djokovic, who could benefit from Nadal’s topspin bouncing the ball a little lower on clay that was not baked by the sun. What we failed to consider was that for Djokovic to win, he would still have to be at his best, and Nadal would still have to be a little off his game.

The opposite of both those things happened. Nadal played as good a major final as he had since he starched Federer in the Roland-Garros final 12 years earlier, and Djokovic never quite showed up. The first set scoreline is misleading—it took an hour and Djokovic had game or break point in nearly every game he lost—but Novak then proceeded to play worse in the second set. In the third, he finally broke serve to get to 3-all, and still he couldn’t sufficiently raise his level to make this a match. Nadal was brilliant, sure, but this match was expected to be an epic and it fell way short.

1. Djokovic def. Nadal 6-3, 6-2, 6-3 in the 2019 Australian Open final

I passed up a sleepover to watch this one live. I was hanging out with some friends in the grade above me the evening before, who I liked much better than the people in my own year. But I didn’t even consider sleeping over, because there was a rematch of the 2012 Australian Open final starting at 3 a.m. EST and I needed to be directly in front of the TV at home when that happened. To put it as mildly as possible, I have regrets.

In hindsight, we only have ourselves to blame for setting our expectations so high for this one. Nadal hadn’t won a set against Djokovic on hard court since 2013. But that ultra-competitive 2018 Wimbledon semifinal was fresh in the memory at this point, and Nadal had looked so good leading up to the 2019 Australian Open final that plenty had him as the favorite. And with the epic 2012 final being the last (and only) match Novak and Rafa had played at the tournament, highlight reels of that immortal classic were playing almost constantly in the two days leading up to the 2019 championship match, getting everyone drunk on the promise of another epic.

This match is worth rewatching for the masterclass Djokovic put on. Relative to our expectations, though, it was a disaster. I remember the horror I felt when I realized that Nadal was never going to be competitive and the match not only wasn’t going to be amazing, it wasn’t even going to be good. Many will say that Nadal had no chance regardless of his level because Djokovic was so exceptional—and he was, hitting only nine (nine!) unforced errors—and they’re right, but Nadal’s level was atrocious. In the first set, he swung at a normal rally forehand and completely whiffed, something I had never seen before and haven’t seen since. In three sets of tennis, he produced all of one break point, hit two winners total on all his return points, and watched Djokovic hold at love an insane seven times. The way he returned was most jarring—it was like he was deliberately leaning the wrong way on Djokovic’s first serves.

Though Rafa won one more game here than Djokovic did in the 2020 Roland-Garros final, Nadal’s performance was worse. Djokovic at least showed flashes of being competitive in his straight-set loss, getting to break point early on and pushing the third set to 5-all. Nadal was simply never in this match, an extreme departure from the 2012 Australian Open final. I’d be fully open to Eternal Sunshine-ing my watching experience of this one out of my head forever.

This might not be a big enough difference to be worth writing a postscript on, but I’m interested that six of the top 10 here are Djokovic wins. I think that speaks to the technical X’s and O’s of the matchup favoring Novak. I’ve said before that one of Nadal’s greatest achievements is piling up 29 wins in a rivalry that really is not kind to him technically. Nadal scored many of those wins before Djokovic was at his peak, of course, and 20 of them came on clay, but looking at the matchup dynamics, you could expect Djokovic to lead the head-to-head something like 37-22. To the point of this list—I think that because of the uphill battle for Rafa, when he isn’t able to bring his best, the matches tend to be pretty listless, hence six of the 10 here being Nadal losses. Djokovic is going to be a handful for Nadal no matter what, whereas a flat Nadal on a surface Djokovic prefers is a recipe for slaughter. Comparatively, Djokovic very rarely loses to Nadal in lopsided fashion, because he usually doesn’t have to do anything out of the ordinary (by his standards) to make Nadal uncomfortable.

That’s about all the bad matches I have the appetite to write about. I’m going to go watch the extended highlights of the 2018 Wimbledon semi for the millionth time to cleanse my palate.

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Thanks so much for reading The Golden Rivalry. I hope this list wasn’t too much of a bummer. We’ll be back to normal programming on Sunday—specifically, I’ll be writing about the 2018 Rome semifinal, which was the clearest sign that Djokovic was steady on the path back to his best since his dip. See you then! -Owen