Nikolay Davydenko has had a lot of success against Rafael Nadal over the years and the Russian suggested that Nadal might have played his final Roland Garros.
Davydenko along with many others was mesmerized by Rafael Nadal and the way he was able to race to his 14th Roland Garros. Nadal endured a lot of trouble to get there opting to play with a numb foot despite the risk of injuring himself severely. Davydenko suggested it might be because it was his last one.
Usually, the bigger chance to beat [Rafael] Nadal in Paris is in the early rounds, because he is still not playing his best. It is amazing what he has done. I think it was risky health-wise what he has done with the foot, but he is absolutely allowed to do it. Maybe his mentality was that it might be his last Roland Garros, so he went all-in not minding the consequences.
Davydenko never lost to Nadal on hard courts which is an incredible feat but he also never beat him on clay. For the Russian, tennis has always been about matchups. He walled Nadal pretty well on hard courts but he also had trouble against James Blake who obviously was never on the level of Nadal.
For me, playing against Nadal on hard felt like playing against just another opponent. I have beaten him in all our matches on hardcourt, but I lost every match on clay, which is expected. In tennis, it is about matchups – my game matched up well with Nadal’s on hardcourts, I had no problems with him. On the other hand, I could never beat James Blake on hard because he was hitting hard and he was looking to finish off points in two or three shots.
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