‘Novak Djokovic is right – I’ve always been beatable on clay,’ says Rafael Nadal ahead of Roland Garros
Rafael Nadal says that Novak Djokovic is right to have described him as ‘beatable’ on clay – because he always has been.
Nadal heads to Rolland Garros chasing his 13th French Open title at a venue where he has become unprecedently dominant.
Winning it would carry extra significance as it would draw the Spaniard level with Roger Federer on 20 career Grand Slam crowns.
Djokovic said after winning the Rome Masters that Diego Schwartzman’s win over the Spaniard in the Italian capital had given everyone else encouragement heading to Roland Garros.
“Definitely Diego showed that Rafael Nadal is beatable on clay,” Djokovic said.
“The conditions that they played on, obviously heavy clay, not much bounce, humid, night session, we are going to have that as well in Paris.”
Nadal is far from offended from those comments though – because he agrees with them.
“Yeah, 100% true,” Nadal said of Djokovic’s claim.
“I always have been beatable on clay. He beat me a lot of times. But at the same time is true that I had a lot of success in this surface.”
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