The biggest and greatest rivalry OE and jubilee 60 match: 31-29!

GoatNo1

Hall of Fame
  • 29 out of 60 matches was on CC
  • 1/4 of GS is on clay, 10/18 GS matches was on clay
  • 1/3 masters are on clay, 17/29 masters matches was on clay
  • 1/5 OG (with both players in) was on clay, 1/2 OG matches was on clay
  • last 5 matches (since ATP cup 2020) was on clay and 4 out of 5 was on PC
  • rafa has not won out of clay since USO13, he is 0-10 and 0-9 on HC and 0-19 in sets on HC since then and since USO13 nole is 6-7 vs rafa on CC and 3-3 on PC

Clay courts: Nadal 20–9
Hard courts: Djokovic 20–7
Outdoor: Djokovic 16–5
Indoor: Djokovic 4–2
Grass courts: Tied 2–2

nole beat rafa in EVERY big tournament they played in while rafa never beat him in AO (half HC slams), miami, cincy and paris (half HC masters and half HC indoors big tournaments) and they never played each other in shanghai.


Djokovic vs Nadal
Australian Open 2 0
French Open 2 8
Wimbledon 2 1
US Open 1 2
Indian Wells Masters 3 1
Miami Open 3 0
Monte-Carlo Masters 2 2
Italian Open 3 6
Madrid Open 1 3
Canadian Open 1 1
Cincinnati Masters 2 0
Paris Masters 1 0
ATP Tour Finals 3 2
Summer Olympics 1 1
 
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Sport

G.O.A.T.
nole beat rafa in EVERY big tournament they played in while rafa never beat him in AO (half HC slams), miami, cincy and paris (half HC masters and half HC indoors big tournament.
Yeah, and Nadal leads the H2H over Novak 2-1 at the USO (hard), while Novak doesn't lead the H2H over Nadal on any clay tournament (the Olympics is not a clay tournament, as it rotates between surfaces depending on the host country).

  • 29 out of 60 matches was on CC
Meaning 31 out of 60 matches were ooutside clay. Most of their matches were outside clay.

And only because there're more tournaments on hard than on clay, it doesn't follow that more matches of their rivalry should be on hard (Novak's favorite surface) than on clay (Nadal's favorite surface).
 

Bastion

Semi-Pro
I wonder, did Rafa really believe he was going to beat Novak, or did he just do it for fun?

We will never know.
 

Sport

G.O.A.T.
I wonder, did Rafa really believe he was going to beat Novak, or did he just do it for fun?

We will never know.
I wonder, did Novak really believe he was going to beat Alcaraz in the Wimbledon 2024 final, or did he just do it for fun?

We will never know.
 

Bastion

Semi-Pro
I wonder, did Novak really believe he was going to beat Alcaraz in the Wimbledon 2024 final, or did he just do it for fun?

We will never know.
We know, Novak enjoyed it all the time even after he lost badly. He was hurt but very gracious afterwards because he knew and accepted that the better player on the day won. Also joking a bit, congratulating Carlos with a great win, telling all Carlos (and Sinner) now the best players, big respect stuff for the younger guns.
 

weakera

Talk Tennis Guru
Why is this always so confounding for Djokovic fans?

Let's consider the likelihood of each player participating in and reaching the rounds where they would face each other on clay, hard courts, and grass.

Across the tour, there are generally more hard court tournaments than clay or grass tournaments.

However, if one player is significantly better on clay and consistently reaches the later rounds in clay tournaments, while the other player performs reasonably well on all surfaces but also does well on clay, they are more likely to meet on clay courts.

The first player's consistent success on clay means they often advance to the rounds where they would encounter the second player.

Even though the second player performs well on all surfaces, their probability of facing the first player increases in clay tournaments because the first player is almost always advancing there.

Therefore, the chance of them meeting on clay is higher because both players tend to reach the later stages of clay tournaments frequently.

Despite the overall tour having more hard court tournaments, the first player's dominance on clay and the second player's competence on clay leads to more frequent head-to-head matches on this surface.
 

NoleFam

Bionic Poster
Yeah, and Nadal leads the H2H over Novak 2-1 at the USO (hard), while Novak doesn't lead the H2H over Nadal on any clay tournament (the Olympics is not a clay tournament, as it rotates between surfaces depending on the host country).


Meaning 31 out of 60 matches were ooutside clay. Most of their matches were outside clay.

And only because there're more tournaments on hard than on clay, it doesn't follow that more matches of their rivalry should be on hard (Novak's favorite surface) than on clay (Nadal's favorite surface).
That's probably because Djokovic has been consistently playing Nadal in clay tournaments the last 10 years....

(13 matches in total - 5 at RG, 5 at Rome, 1 at MC, 1 at Madrid, 1 at Olympics)

...while Nadal has not done the same against him on hardcourt.

(7 matches in total where 0 were at the USO and only 1 at the Slam level)
 
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Neptune

Hall of Fame
  • 29 out of 60 matches was on CC
  • 1/4 of GS is on clay, 10/18 GS matches was on clay
  • 1/3 masters are on clay, 17/29 masters matches was on clay
  • 1/5 OG (with both players in) was on clay, 1/2 OG matches was on clay
  • last 5 matches (since ATP cup 2020) was on clay and 4 out of 5 was on PC
  • rafa has not won out of clay since USO13, he is 0-10 and 0-9 on HC and 0-19 in sets on HC since then and since USO13 nole is 6-7 vs rafa on CC and 3-3 on PC

Clay courts: Nadal 20–9
Hard courts: Djokovic 20–7
Outdoor: Djokovic 16–5
Indoor: Djokovic 4–2
Grass courts: Tied 2–2

nole beat rafa in EVERY big tournament they played in while rafa never beat him in AO (half HC slams), miami, cincy and paris (half HC masters and half HC indoors big tournaments) and they never played each other in sangaj.


Djokovic vs Nadal
Australian Open 2 0
French Open 2 8
Wimbledon 2 1
US Open 1 2
Indian Wells Masters 3 1
Miami Open 3 0
Monte-Carlo Masters 2 2
Italian Open 3 6
Madrid Open 1 3
Canadian Open 1 1
Cincinnati Masters 2 0
Paris Masters 1 0
ATP Tour Finals 3 2
Summer Olympics 1 1

The Nole-Rafa H2H
31-29
29 Clay, 27 Hard, 4 Grass: Heavily clay skewed for Rafa
25 when Nole ranked higher, 35 when Rafa ranked higher: Heavily rank skewed for Rafa
...

The H2H, just like the slam race, shows how organizers and other off-court powers worked extremely hard against Nole and for Rafa, but Rafa was still defeated by Nole.
 

GoatNo1

Hall of Fame
Yeah, and Nadal leads the H2H over Novak 2-1 at the USO (hard), while Novak doesn't lead the H2H over Nadal on any clay tournament (the Olympics is not a clay tournament, as it rotates between surfaces depending on the host country).


Meaning 31 out of 60 matches were ooutside clay. Most of their matches were outside clay.

And only because there're more tournaments on hard than on clay, it doesn't follow that more matches of their rivalry should be on hard (Novak's favorite surface) than on clay (Nadal's favorite surface).
what logic is that? if there are 4 slams and just 1 is on clay they should play about 1/4 matches on clay and 1/2 on HC on slams. they played 10 (56%) on rafas favorit slam and only 2 (11%) on noles favorit slam. USO is rafas next favorit and noles 3rd favorit slam by some margin in both case.

they played 17 of 29 (59%) matches on clay masters and just 3 of 9 (33%) masters is on clay!

and nole has better h2h vs rafa on clay than rafa vs him on HC.
 

GoatNo1

Hall of Fame
We know, Novak enjoyed it all the time even after he lost badly. He was hurt but very gracious afterwards because he knew and accepted that the better player on the day won. Also joking a bit, congratulating Carlos with a great win, telling all Carlos (and Sinner) now the best players, big respect stuff for the younger guns.
and nole got 10 finals on 3 slams there. pretty impressive! and in his last favorit slam he has more finals than fed and rafa at 3 slams.
 
  • 29 out of 60 matches was on CC
  • 1/4 of GS is on clay, 10/18 GS matches was on clay
  • 1/3 masters are on clay, 17/29 masters matches was on clay
  • 1/5 OG (with both players in) was on clay, 1/2 OG matches was on clay
  • last 5 matches (since ATP cup 2020) was on clay and 4 out of 5 was on PC
  • rafa has not won out of clay since USO13, he is 0-10 and 0-9 on HC and 0-19 in sets on HC since then and since USO13 nole is 6-7 vs rafa on CC and 3-3 on PC

Clay courts: Nadal 20–9
Hard courts: Djokovic 20–7
Outdoor: Djokovic 16–5
Indoor: Djokovic 4–2
Grass courts: Tied 2–2

nole beat rafa in EVERY big tournament they played in while rafa never beat him in AO (half HC slams), miami, cincy and paris (half HC masters and half HC indoors big tournaments) and they never played each other in sangaj.


Djokovic vs Nadal
Australian Open 2 0
French Open 2 8
Wimbledon 2 1
US Open 1 2
Indian Wells Masters 3 1
Miami Open 3 0
Monte-Carlo Masters 2 2
Italian Open 3 6
Madrid Open 1 3
Canadian Open 1 1
Cincinnati Masters 2 0
Paris Masters 1 0
ATP Tour Finals 3 2
Summer Olympics 1 1

I wonder how many hours Djokofam has spent looking at the Wiki statistics and updates today lol
 

BauerAlmeida

Hall of Fame
I wonder what the H2H is on GS?? :unsure:

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duaneeo

Legend
Interesting statistic of the "biggest and greatest rivalry OE":

Number of combined non-clay slam titles won: 29
Number of meetings in those 29 wins: 7
 

fedfan24

Hall of Fame
Slam h2h - 11 7 Nadal.
Slam h2h prime to prime (07-14) - 8 3 Nadal (8-4 if we include W18)

Decisive. No amount of late career stat padding will really change that.
 
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