Johannesburg: “Nadal stays Nadal at the French Open. He is at home. On clay, he (Djokovic) is just behind Nadal to me,” said French tennis player Lucas Pouille, who faced reigning Australian Open champion Novak Djokovic in the semi-final of the recently-concluded tournament.
Djokovic had clinched his 15th Grand Slam title when he lifted the Australian Open title last month, after defeating Nadal in the summit showdown.
Keeping in sight the tremendous form that the Serbian player has shown over last few months, speculations were being made that he might grab all the four major Grand Slam title of the year. But Pouille has a different viewpoint on the matter.
Talking about his semi-final clash with Djokovic, Pouille said that after the match, he was disappointed but there was nothing he could do as “Djokovic was above all the others”.
“Just after the match, there was a disappointment. But there was nothing to do. Djokovic was above all the others,” Sport24 quoted Pouille, as saying.
“He just hit 14 unforced errors between the semi-finals and final, it's just unbelievable. I had never seen him performing at that level,” he added.
Nadal, popularly known as the ‘king of clay’, has record eleven French Open titles to his name. Overall, Nadal has 86 wins in the French Open, including the finals which he played in so far. He has just two defeats to his name in the annual tournament.
