Novak Djokovic had an excellent run in Rome where he reached the semifinal falling only to the great Rafael Nadal after putting a huge fight.
Nole was elated with his week in Italy, and he got a lot of confidence after losing from the King of Clay for few points.
Why Nole was happy
After the semifinal, Djokovic commented
“I don’t think that there was too much of a difference between us, which is great news for me. Rafa is, of course, the best player ever to play tennis on clay-courts and he’s in great, great form. It’s very difficult to play him on clay anywhere.
I can only take positives from this week. I didn’t really expect anything coming into this tournament, when it comes to results, because I didn’t have many great results in the last period. I’m pleased with how I’ve played [in the] past three days, very pleased.”
The stats
Nole is actually right to say that he wasn’t that far from Nadal with his tennis. In fact, the Serbian scored only 8 points less than Nadal during their encounter (60vs 68). That means that the King of Clay was just a bit sharper than Djokovic.
