Like It Or Not, The Tennis World Has Had To Accept The Dominance of Novak Djokovic.
Novak Djokovic has spent his entire career crashing the party at the top of men’s tennis. Going back to the first days of him breaking into tennis’ Big Three alongside Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal, he has always been the awkward hypotenuse of their triangle, the one who has been the most difficult for the tennis world to fully accept.
Federer and Nadal are the perfect contrast in style and demeanor, Federer’s “Swiss maestro” artistic style the ideal yin to the yang that is Nadal’s “raging Spanish bull” persona. Their rivalry has achieved such an iconic status that whole books have been written about just one of their encounters on tennis’ cathedral, Wimbledon’s Center Court.
Djokovic, by contrast, has always been the upstart, the brash outsider. In terms of on court results, he first served notice to the tennis world at the Montreal Masters in the summer of 2007, where he defeated Federer and Nadal back to back to take home that title, a feat that was unheard of at the time. But the first lasting impression he made on the minds of tennis fandom came later that summer at the U.S. Open when, following a quarterfinal victory, he delighted the Flushing Meadows crowd with colorful impersonations of his fellow players, Nadal and Maria Sharapova.
This moment cemented Djokovic’s star quality, but it also showed that he was something of a rogue element in tennis’ game- he would not conform to tennis’ often formal, arguably stuffy codes of conduct. Many in the tennis world, including Nadal, bristled at Djokovic’s impersonations, viewing them as unbecoming of the sport. However, no one could deny his ability, as, in the years to come, Djokovic would win his first Grand Slams and eventually take the no.1 ranking away from Federer and Nadal.
Until recently, it seemed as though, despite Djokovic’s achievements, he would always be the third member of the “Big Three” (or third out of four with the inclusion of Andy Murray, whose achievements never quite matched up to the trio and whose career has been diminished by injuries). This seemed like a distinct possibility even as late as 2017, with Djokovic sitting out the second half of that season due to injury.
At that stage of his career Djokovic stood at a total of twelve Grand Slams, an impressive total, but one that Federer and even Nadal had long since eclipsed. In the years since then, however, Djokovic has rededicated himself to the craft, and made a renewed push to surpass Federer and Nadal. In retrospect, his match against Federer in the 2019 Wimbledon final will likely go down as a turning point. The match was a five set epic, with Federer holding multiple championship points, including on his own serve. However, Djokovic saved each one, and ultimately defeated Federer in Wimbledon’s first ever fifth set tiebreaker.
This victory marked Djokovic’s fifth Wimbledon title, and also made him the first man since 1948 to win a Wimbledon final after having faced championship points against. It was also Djokovic’s sixteenth major win- his fourth since the injury issues of 2017. It put him within striking distance- one year’s worth of Grand Slams- of Federer’s record of twenty, while also depriving the Swiss of a golden opportunity to add to that total and put more distance between himself and Novak.
2020 began auspiciously for Djokovic with yet another Australian Open title, but would soon present him (along with the rest of the planet) with unprecedented challenges as an athlete and public figure. The COVID-19 pandemic halted tour play for months, and an event that Djokovic organized during the shutdown, the Adria Tour, was marked with controversy after several participants, including Djokovic himself, tested positive for COVID-19.
When the tour resumed, Djokovic entered the 2020 U.S. Open as the prohibitive favorite, due in large part to the abscences of Federer and Nadal. However, he exited the tournament in ignominious fashion, accidentally hitting a line judge with a tennis ball during his round of sixteen match with Pablo Carreno Busta, which was grounds for immediate disqualification in spite of Djokovic’s protests.
Controversy continued to follow Djokovic in the leadup to the 2021 Australian Open, as he took heat over requests for player accomodation in the leadup to the tournament that were construed as calling for more lax measures. In the middle rounds of the tournament, he struggled with injury, but fought his way through, particularly in a five set battle with American Francis Tiafoe, to reach the final once again.
The stage seemed set for Djokovic to be dethroned as the king of Australia. It was easy to deem his making the final despite injury the result of a weak draw, as in the semifinals he faced Russian qualifier Aslan Karatsev, a complete unknown who had never before made a Grand Slam main draw, let along made a deep run. And across the net from Djokovic in the final would be Daniil Medvedev, the young Russian regarded by many as a future Grand Slam champion, fresh off of a victory against Djokovic at the year end championships in London.
In the final itself, however, Djokovic turned expectations on their head. After a tight first set that he won 7–5, Djokovic ran away with the match, winning the second and third by a score of 6–2. Any signs of injury had vanished, and Medvedev wilted in the face of Djokovic’s unrelenting groundstrokes, seemingly unable to find any way of hurting the Serbian.
The victory in Melbourne marks Djokovic’s ninth Australian Open title (and eighteenth in total), a run of dominance at a single Major second only to Rafael Nadal at the French. The week following this victory also marks Djokovic’s three hundred and tenth week as ATP world no.1, tied with Roger Federer’s all time record. With his place in the rankings secure, he is guaranteed to break that record in a week’s time, and will ultimately leave it far, far behind. In spite of all he has achieved, Novak Djokovic will never be tennis’ most beloved champion, but him becoming its greatest may well be inevitable.
