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Rafa Nadal French Open trophy 2020
Novak Djokovic, Rafa Nadal, Roland Garros, Tennis News

‘Rafa Nadal delivered an unsurmountable, unbeatable performance – and Djokovic knew it,’ says Toni Nadal


Rafa Nadal gave an ‘unsurmountable, unbeatable performance’ in the French Open final – and Novak Djokovic knew it early.

That is the view of Nadal’s uncle and former coach Toni Nadal, who also admitted his nephew’s performance moved him to tears.

Rafael Nadal dished out a rare bagel to Djokovic in the opening set at Roland Garros before wrapping up a 6-0, 6-2, 7-5 win, and Toni says the writing was on the wall from from the opening points.

“From the beginning, at 40 to 15 for Rafa I noticed that he was making an insurmountable performance,” Toni Nadal told El Pais.

“I think Novak also understood this and immediately entered the field badly.

“When he realized that my nephew was unbeatable from the bottom he tried to break the rhythm with short balls, but they were only the result of nervousness and certainly not of preparation.

“It was a difficult match due to the adverse conditions we all saw throughout the tournament.”

The win gave Rafa Nadal his 20th Grand Slam title – something only Roger Federer can claim to have matched.


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Michael Graham, Tennishead.net Editor, has been a professional sports journalist for his whole career and is especially passionate about tennis. He's been the Editor of Tennishead.net for over 5 years and loves watching live tennis by visiting as many tournaments as possible. Michael specialises in writing in-depth features about the ATP & WTA tours.