Rafael Nadal will have no complaints if his final singles match at Roland Garros turns out to be his Olympic second-round defeat by great rival Novak Djokovic but his appetite for the fight remains.
The pair met for the 60th time, a record in the men’s game, with many of them titanic battles for the biggest prizes in the sport.
This was not one of those, and it threatened to be the most one-sided match in the history of their rivalry when Djokovic led by a set and 4-0, but Nadal roused himself before eventually going down 6-1 6-4.
It was only a fifth defeat at Roland Garros in 118 matches for 14-time French Open champion Nadal, with Djokovic now responsible for three of them.
The 38-year-old Spaniard, who is still in doubles with Carlos Alcaraz, has played only a handful of tournaments over the past two years because of injury and knows the end is coming, although quite when that is he has not decided.
WHEN WILL RAFA RETIRE
“You want me to retire every day guys, you ask me for that,” he said with a touch of irritation. “I am trying to do my best. I cannot live every single day with the feeling that it’s going to be or not going to be my last match.
“I have been suffering a lot of injuries the last two years. So, if I feel that I am not competitive enough to keep going, or physically I’m not ready to keep going, I will stop and I will let you know.
“I like what I do and of course I’m going to miss the adrenaline of playing but I cannot complain. I have been playing in all these courts for 20 years, fighting for the most important things. I achieved much more than I dreamed of.
“If that’s the last match here, I’ll be in peace. I did my best and I can’t complain anymore.”
Tennis’ place in the Olympics has often been questioned but there cannot have been a hotter ticket in town, with fans holding up signs hoping to find a way into Court Philippe Chatrier and so many media trying to get into the press box that security were called to intervene.
Nadal was keen to stress their differing current positions ahead of the match, with Djokovic, although struggling this season by his stratospheric standards, arriving in Paris having reached the Wimbledon final.
The right knee that he had surgery on following a slip during the French Open was still strapped up but for a set and a half Djokovic had no more trouble swatting aside Nadal than he had his first-round opponent Matt Ebden, a doubles specialist who had not played a singles match for two years.
NOVAK DOMINANCE
Djokovic was sharper, faster and more accurate but a loss of concentration when his position appeared unassailable allowed Nadal back in, and the Spaniard delighted his fans by winning four games in a row, the last one sealed when he drilled a smash back at his opponent’s feet before passing him.
But Djokovic immediately broke serve again, earning loud boos for cupping his ear to the pro-Nadal crowd, and then clinched the victory with an ace.
Nadal did not sugar coat the result, saying: “I was not able to have to put him in difficult positions, I was not able to have enough quality shots, enough quality of movements.
“He played much better than me from the beginning until the end. I had some reaction, some points. But that was, of course, not enough.”
Djokovic, who will next take on Germany’s Dominik Koepfer, now leads the rivalry 31-29, and he is hoping there are a few more chapters still to write.
“I just hope, for the sake of our rivalry and the sport in general, that we’ll get to face each other once or maybe a few times on different surfaces, in different parts of the world, because I feel like it can only benefit the sport,” he said.
“Every match we play is like a present, to us and to the sport itself. I wish him the best. He’s obviously one of the most important figures in our sport, in sport in general. The more he plays, I think the more tennis wins.”