Rafael Nadal, who is in search for a record tenth title at the Italian Open, faced the mighty Novak Djokovic in the final. The duo has played against each a record 57 times on the ATP Tour and Djokovic leads the head-t0-head-record with 29 wins.

Reaching the final in Rome, Djokovic had to defeat both Stefanos Tsitsipas and Lorenzo Sonego yesterday. Both the matches were quality-filled, and the youngsters gave their best to defeat the Serb. Eventually, Djokovic prevailed with his immense mental fortitude.

What Novak Djokovic Needs to Do in Order to Beat Rafael Nadal at Italian Open 2021 Finals?

Rafael Nadal made a terrible fall at the Italian Open 2021 finals

In the finals against Rafael Nadal, Djokovic didn’t look fatigued as his movement was perfect as he dominated the Spaniard from the baseline. The first set was enthralling as each player didn’t look to give away their service games.

With entertaining rallies, each player pushed the other from corner to corner and extracted errors. While it was the Serb who attacked Nadal’s backhand initially, the Spaniard took initiative in the latter half of the first set and went ballistic against Djokovic’s forehand.

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At 3-3 in the set, Nadal showed how intense he can be while playing against Djokovic on the red dirt. Responding to a drop shot hit by the Serb, Nadal had to cover a lot of ground to make a passing winner. The Spaniard did make the shot and in the process fell due to the lines present on the court.

The Italian Open has been receiving continuous criticism from players as they kept complaining about the odd bounce they get once the ball hits the lines.

Even Rafael Nadal was infuriated after making the shot as he slipped down once again to the odd height of the lines. The match cameras captured a bloodstain on Nadal’s knees after the game got over. It

While the injury wasn’t so bad, it’s a matter of concern for the Italian Open organizers to look into the issue as players can’t afford to get ruled out of a match owing to an unfortunate fall due to the lines.

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