Novak Djokovic and Rafa Nadal are close friends, but that hasn’t always been the case. The pair will undoubtedly go down as two of the greatest players to ever pick up a racket, and their on-court rivalry is the longest and arguably best in the Open Era.

It all began nearly two decades after the soon-to-be legendary duo burst onto the scene within a couple of years of each other during the mid-00s. Ahead of one of their earliest meetings, Djokovic says he got “p****d off” with Nadal after the Spaniard went through his pre-match ritual just a few feet away from him.

“I’m playing against Nadal at Roland Garros, and his dressing area is next to mine, right? So we are so close,” the Serbian told CBS last year. “We try to give each other space. But then the dressing room isn’t that big either.

“And the way you jump around, like Nadal before we go out on the court… In the dressing room, he’s doing sprints next to you. I can even hear the music he’s listening to, you know, in his headphones. You know, that annoys me,” he said.

The 24-time Grand Slam champion admitted he let those sorts of things get to him when he was younger, but soon learned to block the mind games out, and sometimes even use them to his advantage.

“At the beginning of my career, I didn’t realise how it was all part of the script, right? So I was afraid of that,” he said. “But it also motivates me to do things myself and show that I’m ready, you know? I’m ready for battle, for war.”

Djokovic, 37, and Nadal, 38, will be going toe-to-toe in the second round of the Paris Olympics on July 29, in what will be the 60th and possibly final encounter between them. Djokovic has the slightest of edges on his Spanish counterpart, though a victory for Nadal would, rather aptly, see them tied on 30 wins each.

Before their clash was confirmed, Djokovic promised the match would be “a spectacle”. He said: “We’ll spread some fireworks on the court, like the good old times. I hope we get to meet, because it will probably be one last dance for the both of us.” Nadal, however, was keen to play down talk of it being their final match. “Who says [it’s the] last dance?” he asked one reporter.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, he also engaged in some pre-match mind games after insisting Djokovic was the heavy favourite to win the tie. “Situations are completely different for him, for me. He’s being very competitive. I was not being very competitive for the last two years, so in that case, I think probably he is the clear favourite,” Nadal said.

“I’m going to try my best to bring the best to the court and then let’s see how far I can go and how many problems I can create for him.” Cautious words aside, the playing surface favours Nadal, who has an 8-2 head-to-head record against Djokovic on clay. Then again, Djokovic’s form at Rolland Garros is good, with the Serb having won the French Open twice in the past four years.

The pair have faced each other at the Olympics once before, with Nadal beating Djokovic in the semi-finals at the 2008 Beijing Games, before going on to beat Fernando Gonzalez in the final. Djokovic, meanwhile, has never won Olympic gold.