Spring has returned and with it Rafanole.

The rivalry that is the best in tennis – perhaps the greatest of all time in the sport – renewed itself at the Italian Open as Novak Djokovic outlasted Rafael Nadal 7-5 7-6 (4) in the quarterfinals. As is always the case between these two, it was closer than the score indicated.

It was also a match in which the hyperbolic announcers bandied about the word “gladiatorial” a great deal. And yet there really is something gladiatorial about Rafanole’s contests, particularly on the grueling red clay of Rome. The penetrating groundstrokes, the carefully calibrated net-play, the intensity of two never-give-in battlers and yet, something ineffable as well. There’s a chemistry here that will neither be denied nor explained. ...