Djokodal - Who was more successful on their rival's fav surface?

[Hitman]

Simple question, who in your mind achieved greater success against their rival on their rival's best surface? Or do you now consider it pretty much down the middle?

Slams
Djokovic = 2 clay slam wins
Nadal = 2 hard slam wins

Big events outside of slams
Djokovic = 6 clay masters series wins (2MC, 1 Madrid, 3 Rome)
Nadal = 2 hard masters wins (1 IW, 1 Canada) 2 WTF, 1 Olympics


It's quite interesting to see that Nadal has only ever recorded two HC masters series wins over Djokovic, IW 2007 and Canada 2013.

Grass is 2-2, and the more neutral surface, so we'll leave that out of this discussion.

 

[MichaelNadal]

Imhotep completed tennis.

 

[ForehandRF]

6 clay victories in masters and 2 at the French puts Djokovic in front .Nadal's only claim is the 2-1 H2H bud, but that isn't enough

 

[Tennis_Freak99]

Nadal is still the more accomplished HCer than Novak a clay courter. Although clay is Novak's least favored surface while for Nadal it's his second best

Edit: just read the title, it's about victories against the rivals. This is much closer. The only downside for Djokovic is that he didn't win 2015 RG whereas Nadal won USO both times beating Novak. Masters is no debate really, Djokovic is clearly better

 

[Checkmate]

With 2021 RG victory

The answer to your question shifts towards Djokovic.

Big issue, imo, is Nadal was really comically bad in 2015-16 just like Novak was in 2017- early 2018 and I think Nadal could have edged a victory at AO in those years.

 

[ForehandRF]

Nadal is still the more accomplished HCer than Novak a clay courter. Although clay is Novak's least favored surface while for Nadal it's his second best

I think @Hitman was referring at their rivalry in particular

 

[mehdimike]

To me it's almost equal.

 

[Hitman]

Some interesting trivia for you all

- Nadal got his first win over Djokovic in a HC masters before Djokovic had even won a big title, in fact, IW 2007 was Djokovic's first ever big final. Since Novak won his first ever big title in Miami, Nadal has only ever beat him once at Masters on HC, that was over 6 years later in Montreal.

- Nadal has only two wins over Djokovic on HC in the last decade, and both came within a month of each other, Monteal and USO 2013, outside of that one month, Novak has won each time.

- It took Djokovic five years competing with Nadal on clay, before he could record his first ever win. He had lost every single time between from RG 2006 scoring his first win at Madrid 2011.

- Nadal actually had a winning record against Djokovic at both HC slams and WTF after WTF 2010, he lead Djokovic 3-1 at those two events combined.

- Djokovic has played Nadal an incredible 18 times between Rome and RG, this is the highest level rival meetings of any major rivalry, and won 5 out of 18 times, losing 13 times in total.

- Nadal's wins over Djokovic in HC slams are in finals, Djokovic have never beaten Nadal in a clay slam final, his wins are in the quarters and semis.

- Nadal has recorded wins against Djokovic at every possible level on HC, he has slam wins, WTF wins, Masters wins, and Olympics win. The reverse is also true for Djokovic, but the range is smaller, as clay is only on slams and masters.

- Djokovic has been the least successful against Nadal on Nadal's least favorite clay surface. The only place where Djokovic doesn't have multiple wins over Nadal is Madrid, which is historically Nadal's worst clay masters.

 

[Jai]

Taking both slams and masters into account, it's obviously Novak.
2--1 bud open was ofc a good point in Rafa's favour earlier considering the slams, but that debate was pulled back to parity when
Novak defeated him in the RG semi this year.

 

[Backspin1183]

Lol thought you meant who is more accomplished, Nadal on hard court or Djokovic on clay.

 

[Hitman]

Lol thought you meant who is more accomplished, Nadal on hard court or Djokovic on clay.

LOL - No, we already that overall Nadal is far more accomplished, this is just between them, in their actual matches.

 

[ChrisRF]

Adjusted for same number of tournaments in Slams/Masters (2 Slams and 6 Masters for clay as well instead of 1 and 3):

Slams: 5-4 Nadal (from original 5-2)
Masters: 20-10 Djokovic (from original 10-10)

Nadal has the Olympics on hard, but Djokovic could never play the Olympics on clay.
Nadal missed the WTF win on hard while Djokovic never had the chance to attempt it on clay.

So I would give Djokovic a slight edge despite he’s one adjusted Slam behind.

However, one more thought: If Djokovic wins Wimbledon next week, then grass would be his favourite surface together with hardcourt, with 12 adjusted Slams for both.

 

[Hitman]

With 2021 RG victory

The answer to your question shifts towards Djokovic.

Big issue, imo, is Nadal was really comically bad in 2015-16 just like Novak was in 2017- early 2018 and I think Nadal could have edged a victory at AO in those years.

The only real chance for a Nadal v Djokovic AO match during that period would be AO 2017, in the semi final.

AO 2018, he was going to run into Federer in the semis, and Nadal was gone by the quarters also.

 

[Jonas78]

The obvious answer is Djokovic

I would still say peak-Nadal is more "unbeatable" on clay than peak-Djokovic on hard. One should never say never, but i doubt we will see someone that dominating on a surface ever again.

 

[ImmorTAL Big 3]

For me Novak and my logic it s a little different.Nadal has always been far more dominant on clay overall than Novak on hard.His dominance on one surface is a far bigger than any other in history-Novak and Agassi on hard , Roger and Sampras on grass or anyone else .With the abovementioned Novak has to up a his game far more than Nadal on hard.His performance would have to be at a far higher level than anyone before him.So to achieve this results versus a player so dominant deserves much more appreciation.

 

[Deleted member 771911]

Rafa because not Djokovic.