By Chris Oddo | Saturday, June 7, 2014

 

On the eve of their heavily anticipated Roland Garros final, we take you inside the numbers of the Djokovic-Nadal rivalry.

Photo Source: AFP

No two rivals in ATP history have met more than them, and on the eve of Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic's heavily anticipated Roland Garros final, we take a journey inside the numbers of this storied rivalry.

42
The numbers of times that Nadal and Djokovic will have met after Sunday, which will be the most of any two players in Open Era history.

More than:

McEnroe v. Lendl (36, Lendl leads 21-15)
Becker v. Edberg (35, Becker leads 25-10 )
Lendl v. Connors (35, Lendl leads 22-13)
Sampras v. Agassi (34, Sampras leads 20-14)
McEnroe vs. Connors (34, McEnroe leads 20-14)
Djokovic vs. Federer (34, Federer leads 18-16)

239
The combined number of weeks that Nadal and Djokovic have spent at No. 1 as of this week. Nadal has 138 and Djokovic has 101. The winner of Sunday’s final will hold the No. 1 on Monday.

22-19
Nadal holds the edge in the pair's career head-to-head mark. Djokovic has taken the last four, including their last battle in the Rome final in May, 4-6, 6-3, 6-3.

1
The numbers of players to own four or more victories against Rafael Nadal on clay. Novak Djokovic notched his fourth in Rome, but he has still yet to defeat Nadal in five previous matches at the French Open.

878,976
The number of times that Djokovic has woken up in a cold sweat thinking about this net touch, which happened in the fifth set of their semifinal last year while Djokovic was up a break:



5
The number of winning streaks of three or more matches that Rafael Nadal has put together against Novak Djokovic.

21
The number of finals that the pair have contested. Djokovic leads 12-9, on the strength of a 7-3 edge in hard court finals. Nadal leads 5-4 in clay-court finals, and he won the pair's only Roland Garros final in four sets in 2012.

12
Number of Grand Slam encounters that Nadal and Djokovic have had. 

More than:

Federer-Djokovic, 11 (Federer leads 6-5)
Federer-Nadal, 11 (Nadal leads 9-2)
Lendl-McEnroe, 10 (Lendl leads 7-3)

Nadal leads the Grand Slam series 8-3, on the strength of his 5-0 Roland Garros mark vs. Djokovic.

7
The longest winning streak that one has achieved against the other. Djokovic won seven consecutive finals against Nadal, beginning at Indian Wells in 2011 and ending at the Australian Open in 2013. Nadal's longest streak against Djokovic is five.

6-4
Nadal holds the edge in deciding sets against Djokovic, but the pair have split their two fifth sets, with Djokovic winning in Australia in 2012 and Nadal winning at Roland Garros in 2013.

13-4
Nadal's record against Djokovic on clay. The Spaniard has taken four of the last six, while the pair have split the last eight after Nadal had won the first nine on dirt.

317-24
Nadal's record on clay, which includes 44 titles and a 52-match winning streak in clay-court semifinals.

145-39
Djokovic's record on clay, which includes 9 titles.

8-4
Nadal’s record against Djokovic in tiebreakers.

5/29/2006
The date the Djokovic and Nadal played their first tour-level match. Djokovic retired after dropping the first two sets in the 2006 French Open quarterfinals.

6
Number of Grand Slam finals that the pair have played. They have split the six, with Nadal winning the last two.

81
Length of Nadal's career-best clay-court winning streak. His current streak is now at 6.

65-1
Rafa's career record at Roland Garros. Of those 66 matches, the Spaniard has only been pushed beyond three sets 16 times. He has only gone five sets twice, including last year's epic semifinal with Novak Djokovic, which he won 9-7 in the fifth.

3
Remarkably, Djokovic is the only man to own three or more Grand Slam victories against Nadal. Roger Federer, David Ferrer, Lleyton Hewitt and Andy Murray each own two. 

13
Number of times that the pair have met as No. 1 and No. 2 in the world. Djokovic carried the No. 1 ranking against No. 2 Nadal six times, going 3-3.

That part isn’t so remarkable, but this is: Nadal has held the No. 1 ranking seven times against No. 2 Djokovic, going 0-7!!! Strange, yet true. Nadal is 6-8 lifetime against the Serb when he holds the No. 1 ranking.

5:53
The length of their 2012 Australian final, which is the longest Grand Slam final in the history of tennis.