By Srihari Ravi
Disclaimer: If your first reaction to this is “don’t you think it is a little late?”, know that the man himself is still partying drunk in Serbia.
It has been over a week since Novak Djokovic triumphed in historic fashion at the Olympics, winning the gold medal for the first time in 5 attempts and putting together what was the final piece of the proverbial puzzle that is his career. Doing so at the age of 37, on the most physically demanding surface, two months post meniscus surgery, against all odds and against the reigning Roland Garros and Wimbledon champion Carlos Alcaraz is beyond legendary. This was the tournament Djokovic had badly wanted to win all his career following successive heartbreaks, and he could not have possibly asked for a better narrative.
There are people who will try to brush this off as “of course he won. Djokovic wins all the time. What’s new?”, and that is very reductionist. There are plenty of reasons why, not the least of which is the fact that very few people gave him any serious chance of winning the gold medal for aforementioned reasons. As someone who has been following and supporting Djokovic for 17 years, let me zoom things out for you.
While this is not a chronicle on my entire journey of being a Djokovic fan and I will try to condense the timeline the best way possible, consider this to be my personal tribute to the legend. It was his Montreal 2007 title run defeating the Top 3 ranked players at the time – Andy Roddick, Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer – in succession that first made me a tennis fan. During the peak of the Fedal duopoly, I wanted to find that rookie to root for. I just love an underdog story in sport (expect another piece on this).
While Djokovic would soon enough win his maiden slam in what was a remarkably successful 2008 season, he stagnated for a couple of years. Just one big title won during 2009-10 and a period featuring plenty of head scratching defeats including the loss at Roland Garros 2010 from 2-0 up to Jurgen Melzer which Djokovic stated was an inflection point in his career as it left him distraught and resulted in a long discussion with his team on how to proceed from there. There was exponentially more disappointment than success during this period. I sat through all of it while also watching his fellow Big 4 contemporaries lifting big titles every other Sunday. At this point, it was almost laughable to the average Jane and Joe that I was a Djokovic fan and not one of Federer or Nadal. While most people just did not take him seriously as a player, I questioned his potential of becoming an all-time great while simultaneously tuning into every match of his with excitement. Through the pain of watching him being content losing to Federer and Nadal while defeating them on the odd occasion, it became clear that, deep down, he was resigned to the fact that he was simply not as good as them. So many questions were whispered regarding his fitness, being a lanky and skinny man who – a bit more frequently than normal – retired mid-match. Now, I must say that when you foolishly hold out hope for a player to achieve great heights when they have shown little-to-no signs of it, the eventual success feels so much more rewarding. Yes, this was the prelude to the legendary 2011 season. Before we proceed, try to digest this graphic.
What about 2011 Djokovic? If you watched him, you would need no introduction. 3 Grand Slam titles. 41-0 start to the season, 5 consecutive Masters 1000 titles and Year-End No.1. He surpassed all of his amassed career achievements within just one year. We are now talking about a week-in and week-out world dominator who delivered on the biggest stages against the mightiest of opposition. We saw a player who, just a year prior, was happy to lose to his rivals, turn everything around and absolutely dominate them (10-1, to be precise). The entire sporting world was looking at men’s tennis in a very different way. Any narrative before this was just quashed. The crowning moment when he really became a household name and the talk of the town all over the planet was when he won the 2012 Australian Open, defeating Andy Murray in 5 sets over 5 hours, and just over 24 hrs later outlasting his arch rival Rafael Nadal in 5 sets over 6 hours. Yes, the same man who was tapping out of matches several times when be broke out on tour. I never imagined a timeline in which I would witness Novak Djokovic being a physical beast.
Is that all? Far from it.
Another narrative that floats around is that Djokovic is somehow immune to heartbreak and that he has not tasted close defeats in big matches. Time to debunk that too. Wimbledon 2014, arguably the most important triumph in Djokovic’s career. He is tasked to face the greatest ever on grass – Federer – in the final. This, too, on the back of a 1.5 year Grand Slam drought and several heartbreaking defeats at this level, especially the 2013 Roland Garros SF one to Nadal which set him back quite a bit. He was 6-7 in slam finals at this stage and his opponent had 6 more Wimbledon titles at the time. If that does not describe an underdog, I don’t know what will. When most people were quite certain that Federer would be victorious, it was Djokovic who took the spoils. Since then, he holds a 18-6 record in slam finals. Once again, this fact itself, and not the prelude, is what people remember.
Rolling it forward to another inflection point in his career: 2018, just two years after the historic “Nole Slam” during which he won 4 consecutive majors on 3 different surfaces (only man in the Open Era to achieve this feat). Falling outside the Top 20 and not having reached a slam SF in nearly two years while his rivals were rolling back the years and dominating the sport once again, this was another very tough period. It somehow hurt more to watch Federer and Nadal sweeping the slams than it did in 2009-10 because this time, the caliber and greatness of Djokovic was on full display for years and I just felt that this did not mean that he was inferior to them. It was completely different to that time almost forgotten, way back when he held just one slam title whereas his rivals held them in the count of double digits.
Wimbledon 2018 SF, World No. 21(!) Djokovic vs World No. 1 Nadal, 7-7 AD Nadal in the 5th set with a chance to serve for the match. There comes an angled cross court forehand winner, which ultimately sealed the fate of the match, the tournament and even the “GOAT debate”. Sure, if Djokovic lost that match, history suggested that he most likely comes back to dominate again in ruthless fashion. However, he was carrying quite a bit of baggage of having lost nail biters during that season. Anyhow, Djokovic only went on to double his slam tally, complete two more career slams, claim the elusive Masters 1000 title missing from his cabinet and got his hands on that Olympic gold medal. The most sought-after title considering how he wears his patriotism on his sleeve. He had one chance, and he did it. He has “completed tennis”.
Notice a recurring theme in every significant moment in his career? Every breakthrough achievement of Djokovic has come when people least expected it to. So yes, I will make the bold statement and say that Djokovic claiming what he himself calls the biggest triumph of his career, was done so in the most Novak Djokovic way possible – against all odds.
He has, at least to reasonable people, been the undisputed GOAT of men’s tennis for more than a year now. He holds every substantial record, has won every big tournament on tour (something nobody else has managed to accomplish) and has done all of it coming through the best of opposition overall. I ask you, however, to not let the accomplishments themselves trivialize the journey which is what makes this athlete so special. To those that need a reality check that Djokovic was not born in the penthouse and also to those who have been following Djokovic’s career for a long time and needed a reminder of the same, I rest my case.
Popcorn Tennis 