Nadal play against fourth seed Alexander Zverev.In this match, Zverev became only the third man in history to beat Nadal at Roland Garros (alongside Novak Djokovic in 2015 and 2021, and Robin Soderling in 2009).
Despite his rivals loss, Djokovic appeared impressed with Nadal’s performance, “I think he played very well compared to what we saw from his performances in Rome and Barcelona. I think he played really on a much higher level. Even though he lost in straight sets, the second and third set were really close.”
The 37-year-old continued, “He could have easily won one of those two sets, and maybe the match would have gone in a different direction. But he was a bit unlucky with the draw, because Zverev is in great form, winning Rome, and he was serving extremely well.
“It’s tough to play Sascha [Zverev] when he’s feeling the ball so well. But it was great to watch. I don’t recall the last time I actually watched a set of any match live on that level, other than Davis Cup matches.”
It is currently unclear as to whether that will be Nadal’s final Roland Garros match, with the Spaniard not 100% confirming either way.
However, Djokovic appears to think that the 14-time champion will return, “It was great. I saw Iga [Swiatek] was there, [Carlos] Alcaraz was there, and we all wanted to get a glimpse of the atmosphere, of that possibly unique moment, you know, that could be his last. But it doesn’t appear like that.”
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