OFTEN dubbed 'the King of Clay', Rafael Nadal can probably also call himself the Emperor of Rome after his epic three-hour final at the weekend that saw him clinching his 10th title after beating one of his toughest regular rivals.
Rafa means business - he has to, if he's playing his old friend and challenging rival Novak Djoković (photo: ATP)
Novak Djoković is still ahead of Mallorca-born Rafa on overall titles, with 59 to the latter's 57, although they are level pegging on Masters 1000 wins, with 36 apiece, and Nadal is ahead of the Serb's total of 18 Grand Slam wins.
At the moment, Rafael is on an equal footing to Switzerland's Roger Federer with 20 Grand Slams, although the Spaniard is some way ahead of his other great opponent on Masters 1000s, as Federer – presently world number eight - holds 28 of these trophies to date, giving him a total of 54 titles.
Arguably, these Europeans are the 'big three' in men's professional tennis right now, have been for a while and look set to stay that way – and fans of the sport are always in for suspense, thrills, and a white-knuckle ride if any combination of them play each other.
This said, Rafael Nadal remains at world number three in the ATP rankings and has been outsmarted so far by Daniil Medvedev, currently at number two, sitting between Rafa and Djoković.
Djoković and Nadal are great friends off the court, as is often the case at the sharp end of tennis, but from the first serve onwards, battle each other as though their lives depended upon it – the Serbian ace has won the Italian Masters 1000 five times, and the last time he beat his Spanish rival was at the very same tournament in 2016.
A physically-exhausting duel ended with Nadal clinching two sets out of three to end on 7-5, 1-6, 6-3, having already made up his mind to 'go to Rome and win' after crashing out in the quarter-finals at the Mutua Madrid Open the previous week.
Despite having already won it nine times previously – and holding 13 Paris Open trophies after winning more titles at the French capital's Roland Garros stadium than anyone else in the entire Open era, with only two to go to make it an absolute all-time record – Nadal had his work cut out at the Internazionali BNL d'Italia to get past Jannik Sinner, Denis Shapovalov, Alexander Zverev and Reilly Opelka.
Even then, these hurdles were nothing compared with Sunday's challenge – Rafa and Djoković are almost head to head, with Rome being their 57th confrontation, 29 of which Novak has won, losing to Nadal 28 times.
Djoković still appeared worn out from his gruelling five-hour match the day before, and commentators say he was more rushed and less focused than Nadal, whose mind was sharper on the day.
ATP match reporter Craig O'Shannessy said Rafa's win came from 'owning the shorter rallies', and 'specifically the 0-4 shot rally length', which he argued was more critical than Djoković's 'advantage in longer rallies'.
“Losing the longer rallies rarely means you lose the match,” O'Shannessy writes.
“There is no more important statistic to own than winning the 0-4 shot rally length.”
Nadal now holds the record for the most wins at the Rome Masters in the Open era – Djoković's five is the second-most, whilst in women's tennis, the USA's Chris Evert holds the record with five titles.
The three women who hold the second-highest number of Rome Masters victories, jointly with four, also include a Spanish player along with Argentina's Gabriela Sabatini and the USA's Serena Williams - Conchita Martínez, who won Wimbledon in 1994, as did her pupil and fellow Spaniard Garbiñe Muguruza in 2017.
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