RIYADH
\nNovak Djokovic on Saturday requested long-time adversary Rafael Nadal to defer his planned retirement from the game as the duo faced each other in what was likely to be the final chapter of their \u201camazing rivalry\u201d on the court through the years.
\n\u201cDon\u2019t leave tennis, man,\u201d said Djokovic in an on-court interview after beating Nadal in straight sets 6-2, 7-6 (7\/5) at the \u201cSix Kings Slam\u201d exhibition in Saudi Arabia.
\nHe added that their battles over the years had been \u201cvery intense\u201d and told Nadal he hoped they could one day \u201csit on a beach somewhere\u201d and have a drink.
\nThe Serbian player\u2019s remarks follow Nadal\u2019s October 10 announcement where he said that he would bid farewell to the game after the Davis Cup Finals in Malaga next month. Organisers of the Saudi event billed Saturday\u2019s match as perhaps Nadal\u2019s last singles contest as a professional.
\nEarlier, the Spanish player on Thursday said that he was unsure whether he would be fit enough to play singles in Malaga.
\nDjokovic and Nadal \u2014 two of the sport\u2019s famed \u201cBig Three\u201d along with Roger Federer \u2014 had faced each other 60 times on the main tour prior to Saturday\u2019s exhibition match, with Djokovic holding a narrow 31-29 edge.
\nTheir last encounter came during the Paris Olympics on the same Roland Garros courts where Nadal won 14 French Open titles, though Djokovic triumphed easily 6-1, 6-4.
\nDjokovic has racked up 24 Grand Slam titles in his career, two more than Nadal.
\nSaturday\u2019s match was mostly one-sided, with Nadal spraying errors and Djokovic wrapping up the first set in just 31 minutes.
\nFeeding off the support of the partisan crowd who openly cheered Djokovic\u2019s double-faults, Nadal rallied to push the second set to a tie-break, reeling off winners and even treating fans to one last iconic fist pump before succumbing to Djokovic.
\n\u201cIt\u2019s great to see him still fighting even though he\u2019s had injuries and struggles,\u201d Djokovic, 37, told a post-match press conference. It was \u201ca very emotional day, special day\u201d because it was the \u201clast time I play my biggest rival, Nadal,\u201d he added.
\n\u201cI\u2019ve witnessed Andy Murray retiring this year, Roger [Federer] a few years ago as well. And now Rafa, you know. It\u2019s tough in some way to see them go, because all of my career, basically, I\u2019ve played with them,\u201d he remarked.
\nAfter being presented with a golden tennis racket, Nadal in turn thanked Djokovic for the \u201camazing rivalry\u201d and \u201cfor all the moments that we shared on court\u201d.
\n\u201cThank you Novak [Djokovic] for everything for all the moments we shared on court during our careers. It\u2019s been an amazing rivalry,\u201d said Nadal, whose men\u2019s record of winning 22 Grand Slam titles was broken by Djokovic.
\n\u201cIn a personal way, you helped me go over my limits during almost 15 years. Without that, I wouldn\u2019t be the player I am today. Congratulations for all the titles and amazing career to you and your team. I wish you all the best of luck for the future,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
RIYADH Novak Djokovic on Saturday requested long-time adversary Rafael Nadal to defer his planned retirement from the game as the duo faced each other in what was likely to be the final chapter of their \u201camazing rivalry\u201d on the court through the years. \u201cDon\u2019t leave tennis, man,\u201d said Djokovic in an on-court interview after beating …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":71878,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-71868","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71868","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=71868"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71868\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":71879,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71868\/revisions\/71879"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/71878"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=71868"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=71868"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=71868"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}