No. 6, 2009: A "death in the afternoon" for Nadal, who edges Djokovic three-set Madrid marathon

As Rafael Nadal prepares to play what may be his final Roland Garros, we look back at the 10 matches that made him the undisputed King of Clay.

MATCH 6: 2009 Madrid, semifinals: Nadal d. Novak Djokovic, 3-6, 7-6 (5), 7-6 (9)

It was a nice experience.

“Death in the Afternoon” was the headline I chose for my TENNIS.com report on this match back in 2009. The inescapable sun, the red clay, the high altitude, the Madrid setting, the long, pitched battle, full of forays and feints, between two competitors, the life-and-death final tiebreaker: It was dramatic enough to make me think of Hemingway’s book of the same title, about bullfighting in Spain.

I was in Madrid that week, mostly as a vacationing spectator, for the inaugural spring version of Ion Tiriac’s dual-gender tournament, at the brand-new Caja Magica on the outskirts of town. I watched this semifinal in a cafe in the city. Halfway through, a group of young people from a nearby wedding reception walked in, and never left.

Everyone was glued to the small TV screen as their 22-year-old countryman made the long climb back from a set down to beat Djokovic in four hours and three minutes. In the climactic third-set tiebreaker, Rafa saved three match points with go-for-broke forehand winners. As he took each of those swings, a collective gasp went up in the cafe, followed by a collective window-rattling roar as the ball spun past Djokovic. In 2022, the tournament ranked its top five matches; to the surprise of no one, Rafa-Nole 2009 finished first.

That spring, Nadal had reached an early career pinnacle. Over the previous 12 months, he had demolished Federer in the Roland Garros final, and then edged him in five sets in the Wimbledon final and the Australian Open final. Being No. 1 didn’t seem to bother Rafa. He won Indian Wells, and was more dominant than ever on clay, winning in Monte Carlo, Barcelona, and Rome. (In 2009, Madrid was played after Rome, and a week before Roland Garros; the next year Rome and Madrid flipped on the schedule.)

To that point, the Serb had never beaten Rafa on clay. But he pushed him to the limit in two entertaining and competitive finals in Monte Carlo and Rome that spring. Was he going to take Federer’s place as Rafa’s biggest rival on dirt? It looked like it in Madrid. Djokovic jumped out to an early lead by controlling the middle of the court and finding a winning pattern—backhand wide to Nadal’s forehand; backhand down the line into the open court—that would become a staple of his Rafa-beating repertoire for years to come.

Nadal started slowly, and looked a little weary; it had already been a full season for him. Watching now, it’s strange to remember that he had modified his forehand, perhaps to make it a quicker stroke for faster surfaces. Here he abbreviates the backswing, and uses a more closed racquet face than he had in the past. In the coming years, he would return to the fuller, more open-faced swing of his youth.

While Djokovic was sharper to start, the atmosphere in the new arena kept Rafa alive. Despite never taking the lead in the second set, he survived it 7-5 in a tiebreaker. In the third, he fell behind 1-3, before finally letting loose with his forehand and finding a way to gain control of the points. From there, the match seems to be one long, spectacular rally, with Nadal finding the corners with topspin forehands, and Djokovic countering with flat backhand missiles of his own. Rafa saves one match point with a reflex return, a stab defensive forehand, and a haymaker forehand winner from behind the baseline.

Thirteen years later, Djokovic remembered the moment all too well.

“It was an incredible match, had some match points,” Djokovic said. “We were rallying in one of those match points, and he hit an incredible inside-in forehand winner on the line.”

“I don’t remember exactly the scoreline, but every set was close. And then I started to believe I could win against him on clay.”

While he came out on top that day, Nadal’s memories weren’t as positive as Djokovic’s. By then, after so much tennis in the first half of 2009, his knee tendinitis had flared.

“In the end, good being able to play at home; it was a nice experience,” Nadal said. “It’s just that I was with quite a lot of problems in the knee.”

It turned out, unfortunately, that “Death in the Afternoon” was an appropriate title for this match for another reason. Over those four hours, as well as the two months prior, Nadal and Djokovic had essentially gored each other. Neither was the same for the rest of 2009; the immediate winner of their war would be Federer.

The following day in Madrid, Nadal lost to Federer for the first time in two years. At Roland Garros, a tired-looking Djokovic lost to Philipp Kohlschreiber in the third round, and a knee-sore Nadal was beaten, in the upset of the century, by Robin Soderling in the fourth round. With Rafa absent, Federer would win his first and only title at Roland Garros. Soon after, Nadal would pull out of Wimbledon, and Federer would reclaim the title there.

Eventually, though, Rafa and Nole would rise from the ashes of Madrid. The next year, Nadal went 22-0 on clay, and didn’t drop a set at Roland Garros. In 2011, Djokovic would beat Rafa before a stonily silent audience in the Caja Magica, on his way to the No. 1 ranking, a position he would hold for most of the next decade. In their 59 matches, though, only a handful would ever top the life-and-death drama of their long bullfight in the afternoon.

Next: A new challenger