Not to discredit either’s victory. The reason why some people say that is because Djokovic was physically able to play in 22 while Nadal was not in 23. Therefore there’s no “if Nadal could play” hypothetical unless we assume his injuries don’t exist.

And at this point, I think it is more probable for Djokovic to beat Nadal at RG than for Nadal to beat Djokovic at AO.

I guess it’s not the same coming healthy to a GS you have won last 3 times and then being deported VS not playing for a whole year but being counted as a favorite while the guy who beat you there 2 years ago is healthy and winning everything. (Also, let’s mention that Rafa hasn’t beaten Nole on HC since 2013)

Just to be clear, I’m not saying Rafa didn’t deserve to win AO22, and of course “if if if” doesn’t exist and these kinds of arguments are ridiculous. I’m just trying to explain why that one feels more like a “steal” than RG23.

Djokovic is just on another level now. Nadal has regressed a little.

When fans talk about Nadal’ AO 22 win there is very little respect because he ‘stole’ it from djokovic and would have virtually no chance to win if Djokovic played.

Novak was the first person to congratulate Rafa after he won AO22. Rafa won the AO fair and square and it’s not on him who’s in the draw and who’s missing from it. He can only play his opponent on the day. The fans that say that Novak would’ve won the AO title are still living in the coulda woulda and shoulda land. They need to move on, just like Novak has already done.

But Djokovics RG 23 win has no such claims about it. I’ve actually seen some fans even say it Nadal played djokovic would’ve bageled him…

Rafa is King of.Clay especially at Roland Garros. He’s also beaten Novak there 6 times. That being said, Novak has defeated Rafa at RG twice in the past: 2015 and 2021. But it’s a moot point, because Rafa was injured in 2023 and didn’t compete at the tournament.

Not that I care about any arguments regarding either case, people differentiate between the two things by saying that “Rafa missed RG 2023 due to injury, he wasn’t denied his chance to play by the government like Novak was”.

Really though it doesn’t matter. Both beat who they were supposed to, and the competition that they faced. It’s also simply a fact that Rafa at his current level hasn’t been a challenge to Novak on hard courts at all in a decade, definitely not at AO, while Novak has still shown the ability to hang with beat Rafa sometimes on Clay and even RG, recently being RG 2021 (although Rafa got hurt during that match and wasn’t the same after).

Strictly speaking, If Novak plays AO 2022 there’s a pretty good chance Rafa doesn’t get through him considering how close Daniil and even Shapo came, while if Rafa plays RG 2023 there’s still a chance Novak beats Rafa. I’d consider Rafa the favourite but there’s a far greater chance Novak can beat Rafa at RG than there’s that Rafa can beat Novak at AO.

Look at who’s making such arguments - you’ll find your answer.

Novak only beat Nadal when he was finished in 2015 and at night

Is Nadal’s victory less impressive because he didn’t beat Novak at AO? Of course it is. I don’t see how people can say it wouldn’t be more impressive to beat the best ever hard court player en route to winning a slam. However, he still beat who was at that time the best hard court player in the world in Medvedev who just beat Novak in straight sets at the USO. This means his AO was still very impressive but it would have been more impressive if he beat Novak AND Medvedev.

Novak has kind of deserved more RGs because of his level of play on clay but he’s run into Rafa too many times. So yes he got an easier run by beating an injured and inexperienced Alcaraz followed by Ruud in the final. This was an easier sim but deserved after the previous 10 years where he’s been unlucky.