Rafael Nadal reminded Novak Djokovic that they were playing at his most successful tournament after setting up a rematch with his long-time rival in the French Open quarter-final. The 13-time champion in Paris was knocked out of the tournament by the world No 1 in the semi-final stage last year and will be hoping to get revenge 12 months later.
The mind games have already started ahead of the 59th meeting between Nadal and Djokovic. After the Serb came through his fourth round match in straight-sets on Sunday, Nadal joined him in the quarter-final with a five-set marathon victory over Felix Auger-Aliassime and was asked about his upcoming showdown with his biggest rival after the win.
The fifth seed appeared to downplay his chances after having worse preparations ahead of the French Open having returned from injury in Madrid where he lost to Carlos Alcaraz before crashing out of the Italian Open in the third round, but then gave Djokovic a reminder that they were in his territory at the French Open. “Well of course we know each other well, we have a lot of history together,” he told Alex Corretja in his on-court interview.
“Of course he came here after winning Rome. For me have been the not ideal situation to arrive here but here we are, we are in Roland Garros. It’s my favourite place without a doubt.”
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