Novak Djokovic in motion throughout Paris Olympics 2024© AFP
Novak Djokovic misplaced only one recreation in his Olympic tennis opener on Saturday to arrange a possible blockbuster conflict towards previous rival Rafael Nadal. Djokovic, chasing a primary Olympic gold so as to add to his 24 Grand Slams, brushed apart Australia’s Matthew Ebden 6-0, 6-1 in simply 53 minutes underneath the roof of Court docket Philippe Chatrier. Nadal, who has been carrying a thigh pressure, will tackle Djokovic for the sixtieth time if he will get previous Marton Fucsovics of Hungary on Sunday. Prime seed Djokovic, whose Olympic profession has solely yielded a bronze at Beijing in 2008, holds a 30-29 head-to-head report over the Spaniard.
Nonetheless, Nadal, who has gained 14 of his 22 Grand Slams on the French Open, has an 8-2 head-to-head lead over the Serb at Roland Garros.
On Saturday Djokovic was barely pushed by 36-year-old Ebden, who solely made the event as an alternate after a sequence of damage pullouts.
And not using a singles rating, doubles specialist Ebden had not performed a singles match for 2 years earlier than he bought an surprising Olympics name.
Djokovic wanted simply 24 minutes to wrap up the primary set and was 4-0 up within the second earlier than the Australian gained a recreation.
Ebden, enjoying to a sympathetic crowd, celebrated by pulling his shirt over his head.
However that was nearly as good because it bought for the Australian Open doubles champion, who was damaged six instances and hit simply seven winners to the 24 of Djokovic.
(This story has not been edited by NDTV employees and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
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