I have not been very competitive for the last two years, so he is the clear favorite – Rafael Nadal on facing Novak Djokovic in second round at Olympics

Rafael Nadal admitted that Novak Djokovic will be the favorite against him in the second round at the Paris Olympics. The Spaniard hasn’t played consistently in the last two years and feels the Serbian will definitely hold the advantage.

Nadal confirmed his much-awaited meeting with Djokovic after defeating Hungarian Marton Fucsovics 6-1, 4-6, 6-4 on Sunday in the first round.

The 14-time Roland Garros champion won the opening set convincingly. But, Nadal lost his serve in the second set however he got it back in the ninth game. However, Fucsovics broke back straight away to level the match 1-1.

Nadal then broke the Hungarian serve in the sixth game of the third set and then held his serve to close out the game. 

Meanwhile, Nadal and Djokovic have shared an epic rivalry in their glittering careers with 29-30 in favor of the latter.

“Of course, it’s beautiful to play against one of the two biggest rivals that I had in my career, especially on this court,” Nadal said. “But situations are completely different for him, for me. He’s being very competitive. I have not been very competitive for the last two years, so in that case, I think probably he is the clear favorite. I’m going to try my best to bring the best to the court and then let’s see how far I can go and how many problems I can create [for] him.”

The veteran Spaniard said it is always special to represent Spain at the Olympic Games. Nadal is a two-time Gold medallist at the Games, winning the singles event in 2008 and a doubles event in 2016.

“It’s always beautiful to play on this court without a doubt,” Nadal said. “Representing your country is always super special. Every single day when sometimes the energy is not there, thinking that you are not playing just by yourself helps and in that case it has been important for me today.”

Speaking on his performance against Fucsovics, Nadal said, “I think I started playing very well the first set. It [was] a great set, then something [was] happening. The good thing is I have been able to play at a very high level for around an hour, then I know what’s going on now, because I am not playing very often, then I am not able to hold,” Nadal said. “It takes me a lot of effort to hold the energy and the focus for such a long time. But that’s the effort of every day. Hopefully I will be able to do it better the next day. I will need it without a doubt.”

The second-round match between Nadal and Djokovic will be played on Monday.