Olympic Games—Paris, France
Djokovic Defeats Nadal at Olympic Games
In their 60th historic meeting on Tour, Novak Djokovic easily defeated 14-time Major winner Rafael Nadal 6-1, 6-4 at the Paris Olympics on Monday.
Needing a mere one hour and 42 minutes to seal his victory, Djokovic hit 22 winners, won 76 percent of his first serve points and broke the serve of the Spaniard on five occasions.
Far from his best throughout the encounter, Nadal hit 12 winners and 19 unforced errors. The 38-year-old is still in the doubles competition with reigning Wimbledon and French Open winner Carlos Alcaraz.
The Mallorcan recently made the finals in Bastad, Sweden, losing to Nuno Borges in straight sets.
Djokovic will next face either Matteo Arnaldi or Dominik Koepfer for a place in the quarterfinals.
The Serb has yet to win an Olympic Gold medal in his illustrious career. The final crowning achievement that would top off his incredible collection of major hardware.
Djokovic has won every Grand Slam, Masters 1000 event, Davis Cup title and ATP Finals title as a professional.
Swiatek Cruises into the Third Round
Top seed and clay-court wizard Iga Swiatek easily advanced to the third round of the Paris Olympics on Monday, dismissing Diane Parry 6-1, 6-1.
Needing all but one hour and 14 minutes to seal her victory, Swiatek will next face Wang Xiyu for a place in the quarterfinals.
Xiyu ousted Diana Shnaider 6-3, 6-1.
Other winners on the day included Jasmine Paolini, Zheng Qinwen and Donna Vekic all advancing to the third round.
Washington, D.C. Gets Underway
Monday’s main draw action at the duel ATP Tour and WTA 500 level event in Washington, D.C. featured No. 7 seed Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova reach the round of 16.
The Russian, who is currently ranked No. 33 in the world, defeated Ashlyn Krueger 6-3, 4-6, 6-4.
The 33-year-old hit three aces and broke serve on five occasions. She will face either Sloane Stephens or Amanda Anisamova next.
Other winners on the day included Caroline Dolehide and Wang Yafan.
On the men’s side, Mattia Bellucci, Daniel Elahi Galan, Cristian Garin, Christopher O’Connell and J.J. Wolf all reached the round of 32.
The tournaments top seeds are Aryna Sabalenka and Andrey Rublev.
As always, check back for daily updates on TennisConnected for all your previews and reviews from this week on Tour.
Stream all the action live this week from the Olympic Tennis event right here.
