By: Ewan Thomson

On July 29, 2024, at the Paris Olympics , Novak Djokovic beatbeated Rafael Nadal with a very strong lead in the beginning but then fellfalls off; what, what happened? This year, 2024, the Olympics are being held in Paris, with tennis being one of the sports. Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal are some of the best and most decorated tennis players alive.

Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic, mostly Novak Djokovic now, are really really good at Tennis. Together, they have 46 Grand Slam titles and are the top two most grand slam titles, Novak Djokovic 1st and Rafael Nadal 2nd. Though there areis Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz, tennis players who, according to the ESPN tennis rankings, are just as good or better at tennis. So Novak Djokovic isn’t exactly theTHE best in the world, currently.

Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic used to be, and arguably still are, big rivals, and this was their 60th confrontation. This marks a 31-29 lead to Novak Djokovic. The very close scores suggest a tight rivalry.

The beginning of the game started with Djokovic leading 6-1, 4-0. Then Rafael won 4-1, and Djokovic messed up the next set by double faulting, losing 4-2. A double fault is when a player hits the ball out twice in a row, giving the point to the other team or player. Finally, the last game got to    4-3, Djokovic was winning, and Djokovic was under a lot of pressure and people know this because he made a really bad smash that directly led to the loss of the point. In the end, Djokovic won the last set 6-4, winning the game, but not without an intense battle.

Throughout the competition Djokovic has been taking advantage of Nadal being older and having injuries. Djokovic uses drop shots that force Nadal to run a lot.

“And that’s why I am not saying I am retiring today you know at the end uh. It’s about not having the feeling in one year or one year and a half that I didn’t give myself a chance, a real chance,” Says Rafael Nadal said.

This shows that Rafael Nadal is having a seriouslyserious consideringation of retiring soon in the near future because of his health.

All in all, it was an intense battle from some of the best, but Rafael Nadal is not performing as well as, he is growing older.

Sources:
https://www.espn.com/tennis/story/_/id/39364315/who-won-most-grand-slams-tennis-history
https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/5665535/2024/07/29/rafael-nadal-novak-djokovic-olympics-tennis/?source=nyt_sports&redirected=1&login=ml&auth=login-ml
https://www.espn.com/tennis/rankings