World No. 1 Novak Djokovic clinched his first win over Rafael Nadal on clay in 2011 and 11 years later he still remembers well beating the Spaniard in the Madrid Masters final..
Djokovic, 34, delivered a great performance in the 2011 Madrid Masters final as he handed home favorite Nadal a straight-set defeat 7-5 6-4.
“My favorite memory is when I won here against Nadal. The first time I had beaten him on his favourite surface. It was in 2011, and I won that Mutua Madrid Open, which was very special for me,” Djokovic told Marca, as quoted on Sportskeeda.
Since then, Djokovic has defeated Nadal six more times on clay.
Nadal, a record 13-time French Open champion, has just three losses at Roland Garros and two of those three losses came against Djokovic.
Djokovic makes a slow start to the clay season
After a first round bye in Monte Carlo, Djokovic kicked off his campaign at the tournament on Tuesday by playing Alejandro Davidovich Fokina.
Djokovic was clearly far from his best in just his second tournament of the season and Davidovich Fokina took the advantage as he stunned the Serb 6-3 6-7 (5) 6-1.
“I always believed that I could come back and win the match, and I stayed there even though a lot of things were against me in terms of how I felt on the court. Game-wise, physically I was just far from my best,” Djokovic said after the loss. “So of course in those types of conditions and circumstances, then you have to really work two times more than you normally would. And again, I played a clay-court specialist. He had a match already on centre court a few days ago.
“I expected this match to be [a] really tough match, [a] physical battle, and that’s what it was. Unfortunately I’m on the shorter end of the stick, and my week ends here.”
Djokovic is expected to return to action next week at the Serbia Open in Belgrade.