I Think I Like Djokovic…

…are five words I had never thought I would put together.  As a Federer fanatic, I was initially just relieved to see him win another epic battle against Nadal in the Wimbledon semi-final and prevent him from winning another Grand Slam.  If you are an altar boy in the church of Federer, you have to prevent Nadal from surpassing Federer’s Slam count at any cost.  We know it is inevitable, which will be a travesty of cosmic justice, but it is our duty to hold fort for as long as we can.  However, after his courtside interview and the extended post-match press conference, I convinced myself to put together the title of this essay.  Unless it is Federer, I rarely watch those press conferences.  But the physical nature of the match and perhaps what it means to Djokovic made me watch it.  And it changed my mind.

My earliest memories of tennis are related to the Boris Becker and Evan Lendl era when I didn’t understand much about the sport.  Along came Sampras and Agassi to define the 1990s.  The dignity of Sampras was a stark contrast to Agassi’s rebellious, punkish attitude.  Little did we know that Federer and Nadal were about to redefine the game.  If my memory serves me right, even Djokovic admitted in the mid-2000s that Federer plays in some higher dimensions while the rest are just playing catch up.  And then there was Nadal.  Even during Federer’s 2003-08 dream run, Nadal never conceded the French Open, creating his own identity.  Over the years, Nadal mastered all the other surfaces and earned his own place in tennis history.  When you are the only one to boast of a lopsided winning record against Federer, who, in turn, is shredding everyone else to pieces, you have to be part of tennis history.

Djokovic can boast of that rare distinction of not just having a winning record against both Federer and Nadal, but also being the holder of all the four Slams at the same time; something that Federer and Nadal will probably never achieve.  And yet, most of us shy away from taking his name in the same breath as Federer and Nadal.  Nadal owns Roland Garros and the French fans.  Wimbledon is Federer’s second home.  Which Slam can Djokovic call his own?  For a while, it seemed like the Australian Open would be his backyard, but Federer has already matched his record there.  More importantly, Australian fans have not embraced him like the British – or everyone, really – has embraced Federer.

How did Djokovic go from conceding that he is nowhere near Federer, or Nadal, to beating them both?  If I ask you what his secret sauce is, would you be able to point it out?  What is his signature shot or X factor?  If I want to hang a poster of Djokovic in my room, which shot would he be playing?  Federer’s list is too long, but perhaps I would choose his silken forehand; his body rotating one way and his right hand rotating the other way.  It should be called the Federer pirouette.  Or his legendary one-handed backhand.  If it is Nadal, it would be the ferocious forehand topspin, bulging biceps and all.  What would the Djokovic shot be?

It would most likely be his outstretched body on the forehand or backhand side, trying to reach for that ball that nobody else would even bother returning.  It is not an elegant shot.  He has an uncanny knack of hitting winners from defensive positions, but this signature shot is not one of them.  If anything, with that shot, he barely manages to get the ball back in the opponent’s court and forces him to play one more shot.  Metaphorically, that seemingly inelegant shot captures his entire tennis journey.

Djokovic, along with Murray, earned his chops by winning several junior Slams, but spent the first few years on the pro circuit consistently losing to Federer and Nadal in semi-finals and finals.  Like almost all the other players of his generation, and the next, he was mostly a journeyman Federer or Nadal would have to brush aside before they set up their final.  I can’t imagine how demoralizing it must have been to wake up everyday and spend most of his waking hours thinking about beating Federer or Nadal, only to lose to them year after year!  There are tons of names in that category, like Ferrer, Berdych, Dimitrov, or Nishikori, who probably would have won a handful of Slams in some other era, but could never cross that mental barrier of winning against Federer or Nadal.

Djokovic broke that barrier, and how!  He started with beefing up his body, then switched to a gluten-free diet, probably to make it a lean, mean, fighting machine.  With the body conquered, he turned to meditation and yoga when he realized that his aggression is probably the final frontier.  After all these struggles and adjustments, when he reached the top, there was no stopping him.  He had a couple of years of ridiculous starting win-loss records of 38-2 or 40-3.  The exact statistics don’t even matter.  All of a sudden, he started winning everything.  He even beat Nadal in his own backyard – Roland Garros – a feat Federer could never achieve.  Before anyone noticed, he was sitting on 12 Grand Slam trophies.  His dominance was so complete that holding all four Slams was a foregone conclusion when he finally achieved it.  His goofy Gangnam Style dancing, imitating other players’ serving styles, tearing up his shirts after some hard-fought victories, or occasional bouts of anger leading to smashing his racquets into the ground gave viewers like us a pause.  He doesn’t seem to have Federer’s grace or Nadal’s humility and poise.  Can he truly be the ambassador of the sport?  The torchbearer of tennis?  But his 2015-16 run buried all those doubts.  With Federer and Nadal fading, he was the undisputed king.

Then came the inexplicable fall from grace.  It was almost as if he had stretched his mind and body as much as he could, conquered everyone and everything, and had nowhere to go.  Other than the elbow issue, he has been fairly tight-lipped about his personal and professional struggles over the past couple of years, but it was a spectacular fall.  Unlike Federer and Nadal, who returned from injury layoffs and started winning Slams again as if nothing had happened, Djokovic’s return to tennis in early 2018 looked shaky.  It seemed like he would never regain his dominance.  Sure enough, he is on his way to prove us wrong once again.

Anyone who watched the Nadal – Djokovic Wimbledon semi-final would agree that he is back at doing what he does best.  During the post-match press conference, Nadal said that he had put it all out there and there was nothing he would have done differently.  Coming from a warrior who gives everyone else that sinking feeling of ‘This guy is never going to give up,’ that was a compliment Djokovic can savour.  But there was a moment in Djokovic’s press conference that was poignant.  A journalist asked him about his outrageous stretches.  After being away from Slam finals for so long, and experiencing the ephemeral nature of success, he said with a touch of humility that he is thankful to his body that he can even attempt those shots.  And we are thankful that Djokovic is back again with a realistic shot at catching up with Nadal or Federer’s Slam haul.  For stretching his realm of possibilities way beyond the somewhat limited beauty of his game, I think I like Djokovic.