Welcome to The Golden Rivalry

A bit about my 33-chapter "book" on the Novak Djokovic-Rafael Nadal rivalry

Hello! It’s wonderful to have you here. If you know me or my work, it’s probably either from Twitter (@tennisnation) or Popcorn Tennis, a tennis website I co-founded at the end of 2021 with Scott Barclay and served as the editor and wrote articles for. Thanks for coming back.

If you don’t know me, it’s nice to meet you. I’m a big tennis fan and love sharing my thoughts about the sport, whether that’s technical, spiritual, or emotional. (Sometimes all three.) I have a few “lanes”—I love long rallies and don’t care much for servebotting. I think the line between visual beauty and good tennis is too often blurred in analysis. (I get irritated when pundits fawn over the artistry of a one-handed backhand, for instance, to the point that my friends tease me about it and I am probably “that guy” to Stefanos Tsitsipas fans.) I think the 2009 Australian Open semifinal between Rafael Nadal and Fernando Verdasco is the best tennis match ever¹.

But perhaps my favorite experience of being a tennis fan has been consuming the rivalry between Novak Djokovic and Nadal. Their games are so complete, so fiercely attuned to hurting the opponent while protecting themselves, that when they play, the insanely overused phrase “unstoppable force meets immovable object” actually feels appropriate. I used to be a distance runner, so I have the utmost respect for great endurance and love when matches get attritional. Nole and Rafa are the two kings of marathon matches. Their rivalry is the perfect representation of modern tennis, and its physical demands, at its best. And that’s to say nothing about the mental challenges—each man has forced the other to play mind-boggling points under immense pressure more times than I can count.

There are any number of stats about the rivalry that seem fictional—Nadal kicked things off with a 14-4 edge and Djokovic chased him down; Djokovic had two long stretches in 2011 and 2015 in which he looked like he would never lose to Nadal again and Nadal survived both to pick up additional wins; the overall head-to-head is 30-29 to Novak.

We’ll get into the gaudy stats along the way, but most of what I want to do here is highlight the less obvious reasons why this rivalry is so remarkable. I’ve felt that it doesn’t get the deserved recognition for its sheer outstanding quality ever since I became a fan—on an episode of The Ten, Tennis Channel ranked Djokovic-Nadal 10th on its list of all-time best rivalries and Federer-Nadal second. So I’ll be diving deep to make the case for Djokovic-Nadal, including micro point analysis, the X’s and O’s of the matchup, and, of course, descriptions of all their best clashes.

Any matchup that forces the Australian Open staff to provide chairs and water because the players are so visibly cramping from their recently-finished marathon surely deserves a book, right? Screenshot: Australian Open YouTube Channel

This project is the product of a difficult summer in 2022, in which I got tired enough of being inside my own head that I decided it would be a good idea to fully commit myself to writing something that covered the entire 59-match saga. I rewatched just about every Djokovic-Nadal match, some more than once. I wrote for hours on end, which is surreal to look back on—my attention span seems to deteriorate further with every passing day. At many points, I wondered if I was doing anything more than reciting a history that had already been written. (More on this later, but I promise that what you read from me will be better than that.) But authors tend to say that the most difficult part of writing a book is finishing it, and though I don’t know how, I got to the finish line.

The only problem was that the process left me utterly burned out. I spent some time editing the finished product, but I was so ready to be done with it that I didn’t open the Word document for the last few months of 2022 and most of 2023.

As it has become increasingly clear that Nadal is on the way out after injury forced him to the sidelines for virtually all of 2023, though, I started thinking that I should share the work. I like talking about this rivalry, and if I have worthwhile things to say about anything, the Djokovic-Nadal rivalry is near the top of the list. I interviewed my friend Mateja Vidaković for the book, as well as the man I consider to be the ultimate authority on the rivalry (and my personal favorite tennis writer) in Juan José Vallejo. Even if I didn’t, I think they made points that are more than worth sharing.

To compensate for the book gathering dust for the past 15 months, I’ll be doing close, tight edits of everything that goes out, and you can bet that some things will be changing from the original draft. I have some updates to make, too—if you haven’t heard, Novak had a pretty fantastic 2023. Suffice it to say that this will be the best work I’m capable of.

Rather than seek out a publisher, I’m electing to publish the book in installments on Substack. Not only does it save me the hassle of pitching the project, but Internet writing is my niche. I can insert video links to refer you to exactly the rallies that I’m describing in detail. I can link to old articles instead of simply mentioning them.

On the awkward topic of money: I initially planned on charging five bucks for access to the whole thing, which I hoped would be good value for the volume of work. But upon setting up this site, I learned that Substack requires paid platforms to charge a minimum of $5 a month and $50 a year, and I have no interest in asking you to pay that much for the equivalent of a short-ish book. Instead, you get to decide how much you pay—I’ll link you to my Venmo (Owen-Lewis-43) and a Paypal (@thegoldenrivalry). The important part: you’re under no obligation. I will remind you of the option periodically but not incessantly. My hope is that you donate exactly how much you think the book is worth, but I don’t have any expectations. I greatly appreciate any and all donations, of any amount. A couple bucks will make me smile, 69 cents will make me laugh, but what I hope most is that you read and like the chapters.

So, no paywall. You all get access to everything: 33 chapters covering everything from each player’s peaks to their valleys. While number is subject to change—some chapters are a few thousand words and others are a few paragraphs, so I have some evening out to do—you’re going to get a lot of material. Not everything is about the rivalry; I’ll still write about Djokovic flipping the script on Federer down match points at the 2010 and 2011 U.S. Opens, Nadal’s 2017 comeback, and a bunch of other things. (Also, Fed Heads, fear not: there’s a chapter on your man and his impact on both his major rivals towards the end.) But we’re going to get from the beginning of the rivalry to the end.

I will be here twice a week, Wednesdays and Sundays, with a new chapter until the entire project exists on this website. The short introductory section will drop on Wednesday, and the longer first chapter on Sunday.

I’d be honored if you followed me on this journey. It’ll be easiest to read along if you subscribe, since you’ll get the new chapters straight in your email, but I’ll also be promoting and linking this project consistently on Twitter. If you’re not on the rapidly deteriorating cesspool that is the aforementioned bird app and you want to read, simply checking this website once every few days should do the trick. But if you want to subscribe right now, here’s a big button asking you to do so. Ready?

I hate to potentially raise anyone’s expectations of my work, but I think this project is going to be pretty cool. We’re just starting the (insanely short) tennis offseason, and the period right after the Australian Open is pretty quiet too, so following along will get you your tennis fix when there’s not much live competition happening. Consistent output has never been my strength as a writer, but since this is largely already written, chapters should be flying in your inbox twice a week. If you’re a fan of Djokovic and/or Nadal, this will take you right back to the glory days of their rivalry and maybe remind you of some things you had forgotten. If you’re new to tennis, you’ll learn a lot about some of the best tennis ever played. And if you hate both players, reading will help you exult in Djokovic’s pain from 29 losses to Nadal and Rafa’s from 30 defeats at the hands of Novak. (Kidding.)

But most of all, I want this to commemorate the best of the best tennis rivalry I’ve seen. My god, 59 matches together is remarkable. They have 46 major titles between them: 24 for Djokovic, 22 for Nadal. For my money and probably most people’s, they are the two best male players ever. Djokovic is clearly 1A at this point, but Nadal has always been able to push him to the insane heights that no one else can, and Djokovic has forced Nadal to play with an abandon no other opponents can draw out of him. I’d like to think that tennis fans in general will enjoy a sustained deep dive on the epic clashes between two truly exceptional athletes. It’s going to be a lot of fun to share this work with you.

And I want to hear what you think—please comment, tweet, or email at me (owentennis11@gmail.com). Do all three if you want. You can even yell at me, though I won’t respond to the mean messages, I’ll be feverishly trying to drown out the newly emboldened voice in my head telling me that I’m not good for anything. (Kidding again. Mostly.)

I hope you’ll join me. If you do, I’ll see you on Wednesday with the first installment. And thanks for reading.

1. If you haven’t seen it, I won’t be offended if you click off this post. Go watch it right now.