Always chasing, that seems to be the world which comes to the mind when people talk about Novak Djokovic, and he has been doing that ever since he burst onto the tennis scene as an inexperienced teenager. He’s been fighting all along in the men’s tennis’ golden age in which public’s affection and his peers’ respect have always been for only two players – Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer.
He’s been pursuing those two through multiple Grand Slams, but has always been a step or two behind them. Even now Federer leads the list of most Grand Slam wins with 20 titles, followed by Rafael Nadal at 18 and then Djokovic with 16.
But if we look at his Sunday’s win at Wimbledon, Djokovic doesn’t need to chase any more. He scored a career-defining win that should grant him a well-deserved place alongside the twin titans of the modern tennis era. He did it by winning his 16th Grand Slam championship, staring down a couple of match points and getting the better of Federer in a marathon five setter: 7-6 (5), 1-6, 7-6 (4), 4-6, 13-12 (3). People betting on tennis would know how he was the clear favourite going into the final. While the odds for Federer to win his 21st Grand Slam were +178, Djokovic was the favourite at -215. If you convert those odds into probability, the former had a 35.5% chance and the latter 65.5%. Federer being Federer, did what he does best – persevere. But it was Djokovic who came out on top in the end.
Most Mentally Demanding Match
Talking to the press after the match, Djokovic said that it was the most mentally demanding match that he has ever played. He talked about the Australian Open final against Nadal in 2012 as the most physically demanding one, as it went on for close to 6 hours, but he referred to this one as being the most mentally tiring and at a different level altogether, because of….. “Everything.”
This everything that he talked about referring to this 4 hours 57 minutes battle included 2 match points and that historic tie-breaker; and the crowd, which was clearly behind Federer.
He shared that later in the match when everyone was chanting, “Let’s go, Roger, let’s go,” he just tried to ignore it and while it might sound silly, he tried to convince himself that they were indeed chanting, “Let’s go, Novak, let’s go!”
In a nutshell, that is exactly what Novak Djokovic’s tennis career has been in the present Federer-Nadal era. However, now Djokovic has not just caught up to, but even surpassed the two players in many departments, except obviously the number of Grand Slam wins (so far). He leads Federer 26-22 and Nadal 28-26 in the open era.
Before the Wimbledon final, Patrick McEnroe had said that if Federer wins this Grand Slam, he could in a way consider his Grand Slam titles record safe, but if Djokovic came through, it would be very well within the Serbian’s reach. Because at 32 years of age, Djokovic has more number of tennis years in him compared to Nadal and Federer. There’s no need for him to chase anymore as he’s almost neck-to-neck now. The pace at which he’s going, he’s definitely going to get there. So, it is high time that we give him his well-deserved place in the tennis history and among the GOATs.
