London: It will be the current No. 1 vs. the next No. 1 when Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic meet in the Wimbledon final on Sunday, and it would not be the least bit surprising if it turns into a classic.

They have been building up to a summit meeting like this for years, but this year above all as Djokovic has raised his game and his ranking and bruised Nadal’s sense of superiority along the way. They have played four matches since March, and Djokovic has won them all, including two straight-set victories on red clay, Nadal’s favourite surface. They were victories which left Nadal looking uncharacteristically confused.

One of the most remarkable and relentlessly upbeat champions in the history of the sport, Nadal has sometimes lost faith in his body, but those losses in Madrid and Rome were perhaps the first times he has lost faith in his tennis. “He just couldn’t break Novak down,” said Bjorn Borg, a five-time Wimbledon champion who has become an avid viewer of the duels that are defining modern men’s tennis.

But Wimbledon and the Grand Slam tournaments remain Nadal’s turf for now. Djokovic, one year Nadal’s junior at age 24, has never beaten him in five previous Grand Slam matches.

“It is quite different playing Nadal in a Grand Slam because it’s best of five, and physically we all know he’s superior, and he’s the strongest player around, the most prepared,” Djokovic said on Saturday. “So I’m ready for long rallies, for long points, and I need to be physically ready, which I am. I feel fit and mentally motivated. It’s my first Wimbledon final, and the four times I’ve won against him this year can probably help me in some ways mentally.”

Nadal was indeed the stronger man physically from the beginning of their rivalry. Djokovic retired from their first match, in the quarter finals of the 2006 French Open. He retired again in their first match at Wimbledon, in the 2007 semi-finals.

Endurance problems — linked to allergies — have been a recurring concern for Djokovic through the years, but he addressed some of them by switching to a gluten-free diet last year and addressed others by working with two physical trainers, Gebhard Phil-Gritsch and Milan Amanovic.

Gritsch helped Thomas Muster become a force to be reckoned with and reach No. 1, and now he has been part of Djokovic’s rise from good player to great. It is unquestionably a team effort. When Djokovic warmed up for his semi-final against Jo-Wilfried Tsonga on Friday morning, his hitting partner was his younger brother Marko. As they traded ground strokes in the sunshine, five men dressed all in white were standing around the court with their arms folded, intently focused on the proceedings.

Among them were Igor Cetojevic, the doctor who helped detect Djokovic’s dietary problems last year, and Marian Vajda, Djokovic’s longtime coach. A few hours later, they were all locked in a group hug after Djokovic played a spectacular match to defeat Tsonga and ensure that he will rise to No. 1 in the rankings on Monday no matter what happens against Nadal.

“We felt enormous pressure as well,” Vajda said. “All of our box was very excited about it, but we wanted to hold on and keep him motivated until the end. But most important, he was able to do it without any distractions. Even after missing the match points in the third set, he stayed concentrated and just won it in big style.”

Nadal, still the defending champion here, did the same after losing the opening set to Andy Murray, and though he will soon be No. 2 in the world, if he wins on Sunday against Djokovic he will have won two of the three Grand Slam singles titles this season and four of the last five.

“I am happy about how I did,” Nadal said of his performance this year. “I think in normal conditions I would be No. 1.”

But Nadal does not begrudge Djokovic his new status: “We just can congratulate him because what he did this first part of the season is something really impressive, really fantastic,” Nadal said.

Djokovic is 47-1 in 2011, but Wimbledon — the first tournament he watched as a boy on television — is clearly something beyond numbers to him. When he was asked on Saturday if winning the title here would mean more to him than anything else he has achieved, he looked at his interlocutor for a moment longer than usual before responding.

His answer? “Yes.”