Here we go again : Rafael Nadal vs Novak Djokovic XLIV

Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal will lock horns for the 44th time on Wednesday

The old adage “Nothing is certain but death and taxes” was given a jocular twist, few years back – “Nothing is certain but death, taxes and Nadal winning Roland Garros.”

Suffice to say, the Mallorcan matador has kept up with it so far, winning a mind numbing 9 out of 10 Slams on the Parisian clay, one of the most dominant streaks in sporting history. As of today, he has a 70-1 record at Roland Garros and a 93-1 win-loss in best of five set matches on clay.That lone defeat he suffered, six years ago, seems more mythical than statistical, a way to remind disbelieving aficionados that he is indeed, beatable.

But the chinks in Nadal’s seemingly infallible armor have been steadily growing, so have the clamors about his imminent downfall, since the turn of this decade. Bizzarely, he has been lesser of a favorite to win the Coupe des mousquetaires, the more he has kept winning it. And coming off his worst clay court showing in a decade, this year, he has supposedly reached an inescapable nadir.

Time does not spare anyone

It’s distressing to think of what an athlete would go through, and a supreme one at that, to not be able to rest on past laurels or records which won’t be broken for a few decades to come, to go out there and prove your worth time and again, to satisfy their own burning desire and that of millions of fans. And to deal with the inevitable decline after many years at the top.

Father Time doesn’t spare anyone – Roger Federer, Sachin Tendulkar, Kobe Bryant, Tiger Woods.. The list goes on. Some of them came back, perhaps not to their supreme peak, but enough to show they can rule as good as their hey days. Take Federer’s example – In early 2010, he was a 16 time Grand Slam champion, at the top of men’s tennis with nothing left to prove and with a legacy enough to stand for a hundred years. A two year Grand Slam drought followed, where critics wrote him off, but he withstood the onslaught and added one more to his burgeoning collection of slams. And he’s still here, at the top of the men’s game.

It is on this precipice, that Nadal finds himself as he approaches his 29th birthday. As preposterous as it may seem, the question on everyone’s mind is this – Can he do it again, for the tenth time?

We have to remind ourselves that this Nadal-Djokovic encounter is not a final, not even a semifinal. They meet in a quarter final for the first time since 2007, and it would probably go down as the greatest quarterfinal match ever played, come Wednesday.

Will Djokovic extend his winning streak on Wednesday?

Which brings us to the current numero uno Djokovic. The Serbian is probably the only player to have been the overwhelming favorite at a tournament, let alone a major, and to have never won it. Year after year, since 2011, Djokovic has declared that winning Roland Garros is his number one priority, and in the three years since, he has been thwarted by Nadal, twice in the finals and once in a semifinal.

This isn’t to say he hasn’t earned his favorite tag. Djokovic has been so dominant for so long now, and he has had Nadal’s number at every other clay tournament but this. He has been particularly impressive this year, and he enters this blockbuster showdown riding on a 26 match win streak, and a 41 match streak in all major tournaments since the Paris Masters last year. Some say he’s even better than in 2011, when he first came out from the shadows of the Federer-Nadal dupoly.

In spite of his phenomenal success, he has fallen just short of the final mark here. We can’t blame him, considering the mammoth obstacle that lie in front of him every time he stepped on court to cross the final hurdle. It takes a lot of courage and will power to keep coming back stronger than before, to overcome the heartache. and fatigue, mental and physical , and to give himself one more opportunity.

The way Djokovic has responded after each of his defeats is highly commendable. And now, as ever, he looks prepared for the ultimate battle. Winning sits well with Djokovic, he isn’t pressurized by the standards he has set for himself, rather, he raises the bar higher at every opportunity he gets. For neophyte tennis fans, Djokovic’s domination now is probably the closest they get to compare to Federer’s peak years.

Both players would come into this match believing they have a chance. The match would have a lot of twists and turns, but will ultimately be decided on some very fine margins. It is impossible to say if recent form, or history would play a role in their matches, as it inevitably turns into a physical and emotionally draining slugfest. Djokovic is at the peak of his prowess, but it’s hard to imagine that if he is, all of a sudden, mentally prepared to become only the second man to defeat Nadal here.

Views of Nadal and Djokovic

Surely, this match has come too early for both players. He voiced the same in his interview – “It does feel different, because it’s quarterfinals, I’m not used to playing him that early. But you know, that’s the reality, and that’s a challenge that both of us have to accept. It was always a possibility before the draw came out because he dropped in the rankings. Playing him here and playing him in any other tournament in the world is completely different. Conditions are very suitable to his style of the game.”

Before the tournament started, the Serb was the outright favorite to tear asunder everyone that came in his path. While he has proven the expectations right so far, Nadal has been finding his range once again, and the clay court cloak of invincibility is slowly crawling up on him. He is not at his supreme best yet, but he might just be on Wednesday. Nadal summed it pretty well -

“"He's by far the best player in the world. He's brimming with confidence; he has exceptional form. He's won almost all the matches since the start of the year. He has only two defeats. I love Roland Garros. I love the tournament. I love the courts. I will pull out all the stops to win the match. I feel competitive. I will fight to the bitter end. I don't know if it will be enough. I don't read a crystal ball. So if I play well and if my opponent plays better than me, I will shake hands and congratulate and then I will move on."

Whether he will move on, to the semifinals, or the next tournament, remains to be seen. It would be a shame to predict the winner of this multi-dimensional matchup and whose combatants have raked up the most prolific rivalry in tennis. We can only be assured that on June 3, the tennis world will, yet again, witness an epoch-making encounter, sitting at the top of the annals of tennis.