Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic waste no time in first-round victories

ICYMI: Tuesday's big happenings at Roland Garros.

Execution is hard enough in tennis. But versus a better player, execution must also be wed to innovation—as obvious as more consistency, depth and pace, as subtle as variations in spin, placement, court positioning and shot selection.

Then there’s the matter of facing not just someone better, but a titan on a big stage in a major; cruelly, in the first round. Gulp. Gulp. Gulp.

Welcome to Tuesday at Roland Garros for Australian Alexei Popyrin and American Tennys Sandgren. Popyrin versus Rafael Nadal, Sandgren against Novak Djokovic. Though the favorites both won in straight sets, there came slight plot points in each match that might have added more tension—more specifically, set points in the first, break points in the second.

Popyrin is 21 years old, ranked 63rd, and has shown many signs of going further. Ranked No. 114 at the start of 2021, Popyrin’s victims this year cover a diverse range of styles, including David Goffin, Reilly Opelka and Jannik Sinner. He also earned his first ATP singles title, going all the way in Singapore.

Sandgren, 29, is ranked 66th and has proven himself a solid Top 100 veteran, most notably advancing to a pair of Australian Open quarterfinals in 2018 and 2020—the latter effort only ended when he saw seven match points slip through his fingers versus Roger Federer.

Nadal had beaten Popyrin in Madrid last month. Speaking about him shortly after the draw was made, Nadal said, “He's young, he has the power. He has big shots. As always, no, I need to be ready for it. I need to keep practicing the next couple of days, try to be in the best shape possible for the beginning. But I know every round is tough, I respect every opponent always. I respected everyone since the beginning of my career. And Popyrin is a dangerous one, no?”

That kind of comment might well be the fundamental base of Nadal’s genius. Young, old, new, familiar; none will ever be underestimated.

Through the first six games, Popyrin held his own. But then, at 3-all, there came the tidal wave that’s like nothing else in tennis history: Nadal on clay, breaking open the match with a seven-game run. Soon he led 6-3, 6-2. Winner of the juniors here four years ago, Popyrin had just been witness—well, more like participant, or better yet, victim—to an exponentially higher level of what it means to compete at Roland Garros.

But Popyrin wasn’t quite ready to vanish. Early in the third set, he began to conjure memories of Robin Sodering—one of only two men who’ve beaten Nadal at Roland Garros—by repeatedly striking big groundstrokes. With Nadal serving at 2-3, Popyrin broke and reached set point at 5-3, 40-30, only to double-fault. He then earned another ad and this time pounded a big serve that Nadal could barely get back. In came Popyrin to blister a forehand. And there was Nadal, lofting back a backhand lob.

That kind of comment might well be the fundamental base of Nadal’s genius. Young, old, new, familiar; none will ever be underestimated.

On another occasion, in another venue, versus another opponent, Popyrin likely would have thumped a winner. This time he missed. To blink once versus Nadal is usually fatal. Here, a second chance, gone.

And though Popyrin extended the set to a tiebreaker, Nadal rapidly took control of it, sprinting to a 6-1 lead before closing it out, 7-3.

“So of course I don't want to lose the set at all, but that's part of the game,” said Nadal. “You face a player that he's decided to go for every shot, so you are in trouble . . . But here, especially on clay, the matches are best-of-five, the matches are long and it's difficult to hold that kind of level for such a long time, playing with this kind of risk, yeah.”

Though Djokovic’s 6-2, 6-4, 6-2 win was far more prosaic, the Serb too showed his distinctive ability to apply pressure, breaking Sandgren in the opening game of the first two sets, earning break points at the start of the third, then conclusively taking the American’s serve at 1-1 in the third. As briskly as Djokovic captured break points—six of eleven—Sandgren was helpless, missing all six times he held one.

Having closely watched these two play one another several times, the contrast is clear. Djokovic is as well-crafted as a Mercedes, his chassis honed, sleek, efficient. His depth and accuracy is withering and, most impressive of all, sustainable and scalable. The building blocks that make Djokovic so effective remain vivid, a testimony to an exceptionally sound tennis education.

As Djokovic said following the match, “I was fortunate really to be supported and guided by some very important people other than my parents that are very knowledgeable about tennis, like my tennis father, Niki Pilic, or my tennis mother, as I like to call them, Jelena Gencic, that have helped me establish myself as an athlete on and off the court, and they have had support of my parents to actually affect my development and my upbringing, not just on the court but off the court, as well.”

Pick your choice of car for Sandgren, but even he would likely say it’s not a Mercedes. Fitness, drive and hustle are his assets, a physicality and tenacity that has generated a solid career; but also, a ragged technical dimension, subject to breakdowns versus better players. Mid-match, even Sandgren admonished himself for muscling the ball rather than using his entire body. His physical skills matched and surpassed, Sandgren soon enough found himself out of ideas, the match over just short of the two-hour mark.

Champions like to say how they play themselves into form. But as Nadal and Djokovic proved today, they arrive with plenty of it too.