Burning Up Rome

If you go strictly by the scoreline, it doesn’t sound like much: The No. 1 seed, Novak Djokovic, beat the No. 5 seed, 7-5, 7-6 (4), in the quarterfinals.

The victor, for one, knew better.

“It’s a straight-sets win, but it feels like we played five sets,” Djokovic said. “Winning against Nadal is the ultimate challenge on clay courts and one of the biggest challenges we have in sport.”

Djokovic knew that Nadal had pushed him to the limit, had made him sweat and scream and slam his racquet, had made him doubt, and in the end had made him come up with his very best, with the shots that only he possesses. While Nole won his seventh straight match over Rafa, and his 11th in their last 12 meetings, for the first time in a long time this felt like a rivalry. Djokovic felt it, too.

“I have to be very pleased with the way I handled myself in the biggest moments today,” he said with justifiable pride. “I won against one of my biggest rivals on his preferred surface.”

Djokovic won the way he so often wins: By coming up with exactly what he needed, at exactly the moment he needed it—nothing more, nothing less. In both sets, he hung on by a thread, but never let the thread break. This time it was Nadal, determined to be aggressive whatever the cost, who had taken the match to Djokovic  from the start, and gone up an early break. Down 2-4 in the first, Djokovic had double-faulted to make it 0-30. Was he going to throw the set away, the way he had thrown away the opener against Thomaz Bellucci the previous night?

Not a chance. This time, after watching a Nadal forehand land just wide, Djokovic dug in and held after a 10-minute struggle. Like all champions, Djokovic takes what you give him and runs with it; he may not always feel confident, but by now, after so many comebacks and escapes, confidence is never far from the surface with him. Having been handed a lifeline by Nadal, Djokovic suddenly began timing his returns and swinging freely. A few minutes after looking lost, he had broken back to even the set at 4-4.

“I was fortunate in important moments,” Djokovic said. “But I managed to take him out of his comfort zone in important moments and didn’t always give him the same look....I thought he played high quality tennis. He tried to step in, he tried to be aggressive. But towards the end, I guess I was a bit more fortunate.”

There’s fortune, and then there’s magic. This match will be remembered for two Djokovic Houdini acts, each of them pulled off at a match-changing moment.

The first came on Djokovic's fourth set point at 6-5 in the first. Nadal seemed to have the rally won four times; four times Djokovic, spinning his wheels in the clay, stuck out his racquet and kept it alive. Finally, he turned the tables, roared to the net to close with a stretch forehand volley, and roared in celebration. A set he had no business winning was his.

The second moment of Djokovichian magic came with Nadal serving for the second set at 5-4. Rafa had lost 14 straight sets to Djokovic; surely, now the streak would end. Rafa had been too good in this match not to push it to three.

Nadal reached set point. Three times he moved forward and attacked, three times Djokovic lunged and found a way, some way, to send the ball back; one of his shots was so low that it seemed to go through the net and come out the other side. Finally, with Djokovic scrambling at the back of the court, Rafa tried a drop shot and netted it. Again, Djokovic took the inch that Nadal gave him and ran a mile with it. From there, his returns were stronger, his shots were sharper, and the match was his.

Just as Djokovic knew that this one had been closer than the scores, Nadal knew that it was his effort, as much as the result, that had mattered.

“I was so happy to be in a close match, and I have to congratulate him, he played great,” said Nadal, who was pounded by Djokovic, 6-1, 6-3, at the start of the year in Doha. “We played a beautiful match. I was a bit unlucky today. I had so many chances in the first set.”

“But when somebody is winning as much as him for the past years, it’s so important to [take your chances]. He hit great shots in important moments. That’s it.”

That’s it, and that isn’t even close to it. Despite the straight-set scores, the 49th edition of Djokovic-Nadal stands among their best. It was chess on wheels, with each player pushing the other all over the center court at the Foro Italico, and each trying to keep the other from settling into his favorite patterns. Once again, though, Djokovic’s patterns were the winning ones. He rifled Nadal’s body serves back at his feet, and pounced on Rafa’s down the line backhand with his own, more lethal crosscourt backhand. Nadal was just a little too anxious to break the streak and finally win a set from Djokovic, and that's what kept him from doing it.

The match ended appropriately, with each man paying the other a compliment.

“I feel lucky and unlucky at the same time,” Nadal said, “to be playing in the same era as [Novak].”

Djokovic’s sign of respect came after his last backhand had gone for a winner. The world No. 1, rather than roaring and leaping in celebration, walked to the net to shake Rafa’s hand.