The two have not faced each other on red since 2015, when Stan won against the Serbian in Paris: it was the only defeat in the Grand Slams that year.
Novak Djokovic, Stan Wawrinka and clay. It’s easy to go back in time, to that 2015 in which the Serbian – then number 1, as now – crashed into the Swiss. On 7 June seven years ago, the man from Lausanne won the final of Roland Garros to find his second career Grand Slam title after that of 2014 in Melbourne, in which the victory in the final against Rafa Nadal came after an epic success in the quarter-finals. final always against Nole: 2-6 6-4 6-2 3-6 9-7. Match for the ages, to be handed down to the new generations. The two will find themselves on clay for the first time since that unexpected epilogue in Paris, which was the only blemish of a triumphal season for Djokovic: if it was not the Grand Slam it is only for that defeat.
the rivalry
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Prior to that match, Wawrinka had beaten Nole on red only once, in the Umag final in 2006 for the Serbian’s retirement in the first set. From 2012 to 2016, the two created a dualism to remember: in 2013 unforgettable marathons in Melbourne (12-10 in the fifth for Nole in the round of 16) and New York (6-4 in the fifth for Djokovic in the semifinals), in 2014 the already cited battle in Australia, in 2015 the semifinal always in Melbourne won by the Serbian in the fifth set and the final in Paris with the triumph of Stan, who will repeat the feat at the US Open the following year with the victory in four sets. At the Centrale del Foro Italico there will be a party for all tennis fans, who have not seen the two on the pitch together since the round of 16 at Flushing Meadows in 2019, when Wawrinka left the court in the third set after losing the first two.
another chapter
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Today’s will be the 26th chapter of the rivalry: Djokovic has won 19 times, Wawrinka 6. For both of them this challenge means a lot: Nole is looking for the best condition, Stan didn’t think he could get to this point. Yet in Rome he seems to find new energies, also thanks to the affection of the public: to attend his training there is a full house, the backhand to one hand delights those present. When he practices hitting the empty ball cans, you already know he will soon take them down. And so it happens without having to wait too long. In the first round he defused Opelka’s serve, always managing to respond in the important moments, in the second he found a nice victory against Djere. Djokovic made his debut smoothly against Karatsev and is hungry for victories. On the other side of the net he will find the player who prevented him from making the Grand Slam in 2015, even if the defeat came in the second stage and not in the last, as in 2022 against Medvedev in New York. Much will depend on Stan’s estate, who won the first two games of the year in Rome. But who would have expected another chapter in the saga?
May 12 – 08:12
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