Rafa Nadal couldn’t beat Djokovic in the last match of the longest rivalry in history. The Manacorí has fallen in the match for third and fourth place of the Six King Slam, the exhibition tournament that is being held in Saudi Arabia.
In the last time the two giants faced each other, the Serbian won the duel in two sets by 2-6 and 6-7 (5), although Nadal has shown a much better version than the one seen the other day against Alcaraz.
‘Nole’ started very strong, managing to break Rafa’s serve already in the fifth game and distance himself to close the initial round with solvency. But he changed the script in the second set. The two players were exchanging breaks and Rafa even went ahead twice on the scoreboard.
With a break he went 4-3 in favor, but Djokovic turned it around with two games in a row. Then the Nadal of the great events briefly appeared, the one who returned impossible balls, with two ‘passings’ in a row that raised to the public on the track. The Manacorí was able to take the match to a tie-break, but again the serve weighed him down as at the beginning of the match. And the Serbian did not fail on his second match point.
However, it is seen that Nadal is returning to sensations in this penultimate tournament of his career. before reaching the final phase of the Davis Cup in Malaga. We will no longer see a confrontation between him and Djokovic, who have faced each other, as of today, 61 times in their entire career. It will be a long time until we see another similar rivalry.