Nadal
Spain's Rafael Nadal stretches to hit a shot during a practice session at Melbourne Park, Australia, January 15, 2016. The Australian Open tennis tournament starts January 18. Reuters/David Gray

Former World No. 1 Chris Evert thinks Rafael Nadal cannot defeat Novak Djokovic regardless of the tennis court surface following the Spaniard’s lopsided loss against the Serb at the Qatar Open in Doha earlier this month.

During an ESPN press conference call, Evert talked about Djokovic, Nadal as well as career rival Roger Federer. Evert, who won 18 Grand Slam singles and three doubles, said Nadal could do better this year than last season but claimed that the “King of Clay” would not stand a chance against the Serb, who has been dominating the competition.

“Rafa, I think he might do a bit better than last year. But as you saw in the final of Doha, at the moment he’s nowhere near beating Djokovic on any surface,” Evert said. “Obviously that will be his priority, trying to figure that out, trying to beat the guys in front of him.”

For the first time ever, Djokovic is leading Nadal by 24-23 in their FedEx ATP Head2Head. The 10-time Grand Slam winner has defeated Nadal in the last nine of their 10 matches.

Nadal has convincingly revived his career but fell short of capitalising his momentum after his failed bids at the China Open, Swiss Indoors and ATP World Tour Finals last year, where he reached the final round only to be defeated by Roger Federer and Djokovic, respectively. The 14-time Grand Slam winner said his motivation this week will be the 2016 Australian Open, where he opens the tournament facing compatriot Fernando Verdasco and where he has a projected quarterfinal match-up against World No. 4 Stan Wawrinka.

"Last year, I was playing so bad here, to reach the quarter-final was a great result," Nadal said, reports the Sydney Morning Herald. "Sometimes you really play better or you really feel that you are ready, and you have a worse result."

RELATED STORIES