The two giants of the game have faced each other 60 times in their long illustrious career, the most between any two players in the Open Era. On Saturday, Spanish great Rafael Nadal will have one last chance to battle old rival Novak Djokovic at the Six Kings Slam exhibition event in Saudi Arabia.

“To have Novak in front of me, it’s like a nostalgic thing,” Nadal told reporters. “We’ve played each other a lot, so it’ll be fun to play each other again in this match.”

The 22-time grand slam champion, who announced his retirement last week, will call time on his career after the Davis Cup finals in Malaga next month.

Playing the exhibition event in Riyadh, Nadal lost 6-3, 6-3 to countryman Carlos Alcaraz in the semi-finals on Thursday to set up a third-place match against 24-time grand slam champion Djokovic, who was also beaten, 6-2, 6-7(0), 6-4 by Italian Jannik Sinner.

World No. 1 Sinner will meet Alcaraz in the final where the winner will take home $6 million.

Thursday’s match was Nadal’s first since his exit at the Paris Olympics in July. There, at Roland Garros, the home of the French Open, a tournament he has won a record 14 times, Nadal lost 6-1, 6-4 to Djokovic in the second round.

Once Nadal suits up for the Davis Cup finals, he might team up with Alcaraz in
the men’s doubles for the tournament scheduled from November 19-24.

“Emotionally, I’m sure I’ll be ready,” the 38-year-old. “Physically and in terms of tennis level there is a month left to prepare. If I don’t feel ready for the singles I’ll be the first one to say (it) and let’s see if I can help in some way.”

Nadal said the 21-year-old Alcaraz was doing well in his career and did not need much advice from him.

“He has a great team, a great family,” he added. “He’s going to do very well with what he’s got. He’s learning all the time.

“We can see he’s developing in every way. But of course I’ll be ready whenever he wants to call me.”

“Carlos was too good,” Nadal added about their match on Thursday. “I haven’t been on the competitive stage since a couple months ago. So yeah I think it was a good performance, even if it was not enough to play against an animal like him. But it was a positive match for me and I’m happy.”

Reuters