Despite the Paris crowd urging him on at his beloved Roland-Garros, Rafael Nadal could not get past old foe Novak Djokovic in the second round of the Olympic Games.
The top seed emerged victorious, 6-1, 6-4 – breaking Nadal’s serve in the second game to race ahead, and serving up an ace on match point to put a full stop to the encounter.
But the Rafans were at least heartened by a second-set resurgence from their man, coming back from 4-0 down to make it respectable in his 60th meeting with Djokovic.
It is the Serbian who leads the head-to-head, 31-29, but this was just his third win in11 meetings with Nadal on the terre battue.
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