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Bill Simons on Novak

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  • Bill Simons on Novak

    Bill Simons

    Novak Djokovic, who seems poised to win his 10th Australian Open, was reared on a mountain in Southeastern Europe in a region known for its intense, complex civil and racial rivalries and fierce battles.

    One could easily trace its wars back to the start of World War I, and then go further back. Many looked down on the less-than-wealthy region and dismissed it as an outback. Winston Churchill reportedly said, “The Balkans produces more history than it can consume.”

    In the ’90s, fierce battles broke out and European and American air forces dropped bombs to try to deter war. On the ground, an eager Belgrade boy practiced his backhand as bombs fell and, when necessary, sought shelter within subway stations.

    Soon he’d be shipped to a Munich tennis factory. There, many students, like Ernst Gulbis, enjoyed the good life and partied. But the sinewy Serbian teen remained on his mission: honing his precise, powerful strokes. His family’s life depended on them.

    But, around 2006, there was a problem. Two young tennis gods had ascended. Roger and Rafa not only dominated on court – virtually everywhere they were beloved.

    In her prime, Martina Navratilova barely dented the crowd’s love of her darling rival, Chris Evert. Similarly, the skinny, short-haired Serb rarely gained the roars of delight that Roger and Rafa evoked. But no matter, he soon began to undermine Federer and Nadal’s duopoly.

    “A young guy, 19 years old,” noted master coach Patrick Mouratoglou, “suddenly came out and said publicly, ‘I’m going to beat them.’ And this guy was Novak Djokovic. The tennis world said, ‘What a shame. How could this guy be so cocky?’ It’s not cockiness. It’s confidence. And he happened to do it. Not because he said it, but because he deeply believed it.”

    Former Serbian star Janko Tipsarevic once told Inside Tennis, “Novak wants to be the best of all time and nothing else, and is willing to do whatever it takes…Nothing else satisfies his hunger. You saw this with LeBron, Kobe, Ronaldo and Muhammad Ali.”

    When Novak scored his breakthrough win at the 2008 Australian Open, his mother Dijana reflected on Federer and declared, “The king is dead.”

    It was a controversial comment. Then again Novak (and his family and support team) breathe the air of controversy. He embraces crises. He relishes managing them and uses them to power forward.

    Today he said, “At the final stages of a Slam, you can expect to have a crisis – one or two or three crises.”

    In just this tourney there have been numerous dust-ups: the severity of his hamstring injury, his being allowed to be heckled, his supposedly getting a mid-match secret message on a water bottle and, of course, the appearance of his father with pro-Putin demonstrators (that Novak said was an unfortunate accident).

    Perhaps more than any other tennis player – Bill Tilden, Ilie Nastase, Arthur Ashe, Billie Jean King, McEnroe, Connors and Agassi – Nole has navigated wide-ranging controversies. Early on, Andy Roddick mocked him for supposedly faking “16 injuries” and the two reportedly had a US Open locker room scuffle.

    Often there were complaints that his injuries were exaggerated. Players bristled when he offered his hilarious imitations. He was booted out of the 2020 US Open when he accidentally struck a linesperson with a ball. At the Tokyo Olympics he smashed his racket. During Covid he flaunted safety protocols and hosted the Adria exhibition tour that led to assorted Covid cases. He claimed that positive thinking could transform polluted water, and, most famously, last year he had his Covid dispute with Australian authorities, and was detained and eventually deported.

    All the while the oh-so-gifted and complex Nole was a singular seeker, free-form thinker and explorer like few other athletes. He cocoons himself post-match in hyperbaric chambers. He went on internal journeys with a Spanish meditation guru, wrote a book on gluten free diets, climbed a French mountain to seek renewal, visited the power points of Bosnian caves, traveled to the Green school in Bali, dropped in at a Buddhist temple in London, reflected on the edge of the Grand Canyon and created a “We ain’t gonna take it any more” player association. The man, who’s now a father of two, seems to live on the cutting edge.

    All the while, he and his family and inner circle have created an intense, protective me-against-the world mindset, in the tradition of Jimmy Connors and Lletyton Hewitt. Today he confided that his people insulate him from news, “to keep my mind as sane or serene as possible in order to conserve the vital energy that I need for the court.”

    And oh has the sublime baseliner been vital! He’s been a demolition machine on court. Just ask Tommy Paul, Alex de Minaur or Grigor Dimitrov. At a time when Federer has retired, Nadal is hobbled and new stars are still struggling to emerge, Novak continues to amaze. At 35, he seems as good as ever – if not better.

    He still bends low, his forehand punishes, his serve is better than ever, his anticipation amazes. He can win on any surface. In Melbourne he’s won a record 27 straight matches and now is into his tenth final. He’s never lost an Aussie Open final. Despite having missed last year’s Aussie Open and all recent North American tournaments. And despite not getting any ranking points for winning Wimbledon, the guy could be No. 1 if he beats Stefanos Tsitsipas. Novak has beaten the Greek in ten of their 12 meetings.

    And the conventional wisdom is that by the time this complex, controversial and astonishingly great athlete hangs up his sneakers there actually will be little controversy: the man from the Balkan peak will be widely celebrated as the best player to ever pick up a tennis racket.

  • #2
    Great piece on Novak. It is something how he appears to have not lost a step at 35. No other great player at that age has ever been able to do that. And it is amazing how he has been able to perform at the highest level for so long with the crowd pretty much against him, never so evident than all his battles with Roger. I always wondered how Roger would have dealt with that had things been reversed. It looks to me now that Roger has retired, he is getting more love from the crowd. But the crowd loves Tsitsipas, so here we go again. I can still remember at the US Open(he was very young), how he was asked post match by an announcer to do his other player imitations, and he did, trying so hard to be loved by the crowd. Maybe too hard. The 2019 Wimbledon Final win vs Roger was the poster child for what Novak can do with virtually no crowd support. He absolutely was able to put it out of his mind and just go to work, as the crowd lovingly supported Roger.
    Last edited by stroke; 01-28-2023, 03:59 AM.

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    • #3
      I think Bill was certain, as I was, that Novak was going to claim his tenth win down under. The only think that might have saved Stef would have been if Novak had gone on one of his inexplicable wobbles. But that was never going to happen, was it?

      The only thing of interest left in this two-horse race to immortality is how Rafa will respond at the FO. He must be cursing he now has to win the FO yet again to have any chance of holding Novak back. I rather get the impression that Rafa is starting to tire of tennis and the constant winning he has to do. Her's gotten more and more cranky over the years. Novak by contrast seems quite chirpy about his tennis. He's a better player now than he was in his twenties.
      Stotty

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      • #4
        He has certainly maintained his game better than anyone at his age has ever done. I still think ha is now quite as fast as he was, but with his stand alone lockdown ability, it is imperceptible. It is something Novak and Rafa at their age appear to be heading to RG as the top 2 favorites. It certainly looks like this will be Nadal's last hurrah.

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        • #5
          Originally posted by stroke View Post
          He has certainly maintained his game better than anyone at his age has ever done. I still think ha is now quite as fast as he was, but with his stand alone lockdown ability, it is imperceptible. It is something Novak and Rafa at their age appear to be heading to RG as the top 2 favorites. It certainly looks like this will be Nadal's last hurrah.
          Very interesting development. The only challengers are just over their prime (Wawrinka, Nadal) or were hurt (Medi and Alcaraz). I am not sure any particular player could beat him. But no one could push him past four sets.

          The way he is playing reminded me of the famous Agassi-Sampras night match in which no one broke serve. I thought they had much better matches including the final with that crazy rally that ended with a Sampras cross court winner. But the clinical nature of that night match was impressive.

          Djokovic looks clinical like all the great ones do as they get older. They just read the situation so well and know what to do under pressure. Medi if healthy or Alcaraz could have given Nole a real run for this money. But at 35 everyone else is hurt and he is not.

          Simply Amazing!

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