Will we be watching Djokovic vs Nadal in less than a month? They are registered for the tournament, but...

Photo: Tanjug/AP

After the Australian Open, Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal are tied on the all-time list of Grand Slam champions, as they now have 22 trophies each.

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With his triumph in Australia, Novak has definitively removed any doubts about who the GOAT is, according to all statistics - but as long as he and Nadal are active and tied in Grand Slam titles, this debate will be open.

This year, we could also get an answer as to who is the best of all time, primarily in the remaining Grand Slams, but also in other duels, if there are any, between Novak and Nadal.

The two are part of the greatest tennis rivalry ever. Not only do they both have 22 Grand Slams, but they are also close in terms of the total number of titles won - Novak now leads with 93 titles compared to Nadal's 92.

There is also a close difference in the mutual score, and they have played the most matches in history - a total of 59, while Novak leads with 30-29.

That is why their next one could be historic.

We may see something like that in less than a month. Namely, Novak Djokovic is registered for the tournament in Dubai, and Rafael Nadal is also on the list of participants.

Neither Novak nor Nadal are 100% certain to participate. Nadal got injured during the Australian Open and announced that this will keep him out for 6 to 8 weeks.

He received the same diagnosis in Barcelona after returning from Melbourne and announced on January 26 that the same injury was confirmed and that the deadline for returning to the court remains the same.

Therefore, there the chances that Nadal will return in time are almost minimal, because it will be exactly six weeks since his injury as the Dubai tournament starts.

Nadal will give new information in less than three weeks when he will repeat the testing, but it is almost certain that we will not watch him, because his priority this year will certainly be the French Open, so it is unlikely that he would risk making his injury worse by playing in Dubai.

But, even without Nadal, the tournament in Dubai will be extremely strong, because Daniil Medvedev, Felix Auger Aliassime, Hubert Hurkacz, Karen Khachanov, Alexander Zverev will be there...

(Telegraf.rs)