It wasn’t even a year ago. Novak Djokovic ruled the world head and shoulders. A season with three Grand Slam titles, plus another final, at Wimbledon, and the Masters as the icing on the cake in Turin. At 36, there was more of him and the others than ever. Despite the emergence of Carlos Alcaraz, he was the boss. A year later, tennis has changed era. Jannik Sinner asserted himself, Alcaraz confirmed, and Djokovic backed down. More than a real decline, it is the progression of this new major duo which has changed the situation for the Serbian.
It’s not finished, the Djoker. Even if the Italian-Spanish tandem won the four Grand Slam tricks, it was he, Djokovic, who won the other major title of this year 2024 by winning the gold medal in Paris. This Olympic title, the last major costume that he had never worn before, was undoubtedly even more important for his career than a 25th Grand Slam title. Filling this gap weighs more than anything else on his list of achievements.
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Olympic champion, a final and a half in a Grand Slam alongside… For the vast majority of players, such a season would be a great success. Not for him. “In terms of results, it’s one of the worst seasons of my careerhe estimated Sunday after his defeat in the final in Shanghai against Sinner (7-6, 6-3). But it was going to happen eventually, that I wouldn’t win a Grand Slam after so many years in a row of winning several.” Faced with the exceptional, the “good” seems bland. Djokovic weaned from a Major, this had only happened once since 2011, in 2017, a year cut short by the most serious injury (elbow) of his career.
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He doesn’t get depressed. Even if he still hates defeat as much, with age, he accepts a form of philosophical approach, even if it does not resemble fatality. “Honestly, it’s OK. I am happy with my Olympic gold medal, because it was my number one goal this season, he said. Of course, I would have liked to win a Grand Slam, but that’s okay, it’s like that, these are the kind of seasons where you have to know how to accept things and I’m so happy with my career. Now I look at the next challenges ahead of me.”
Has Novak Djokovic regressed over the last twelve months? He is clearly no longer as dominant and his physique has played tricks on him on several occasions. Yes, he has looked his age at times this season. But at times, he always manages to raise his level of play to very significant heights.
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Above all, ask yourself the question: if Sinner and Alcaraz had not progressed so much, would he not still be the boss of world tennis today? In Melbourne, Sinner stopped him dead in the half. At Wimbledon, Alcaraz soundly beat him in the final. At Roland Garros, it was his knee that called it quits before the quarter against Ruud. It was only at the US Open where he really missed out, because both his head and his legs couldn’t take it anymore after the Paris Olympics.
The biggest obstacle to domination, even less marked, by Novak Djokovic, is first of all Sinner and Alcaraz. Behind these two, no one surpasses him. Even if the ranking says otherwise, he is not inferior to Zverev or Medvedev (as far as Race is concerned). Whether he finishes the year 4th, 5th or 6th, it doesn’t matter. In reality, he is the third man on the circuit, but at a respectable distance from his two cadets.
Resignation? Don’t know!
In a way, Djokovic is regaining a bit of the status he had at the start of his career, before he took power in 2011. The role of the third thief. At the time, the two pebbles in his shoe, or even the two rocks, were named Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal. Here he is back around fifteen years, except that, this time, he is also around fifteen years older than his two main rivals. It is therefore difficult to imagine that he can catch up. “Nole” no longer has any room for improvement. They might still have one.
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This is why the time of Djokovic’s domination on the circuit is definitely over, unless we imagine that Sinner and Alcaraz are stopped in their tracks by an injury… or by something else, especially as regards the Italian, under the threat of short-term suspension. But without that… The Serb has lost four of his last five combined duels against the top two in the world. The Games reminded him, occasionally, he can still teach a lesson. Even in front of them. But this will undoubtedly become increasingly rare.
The fact remains that Djoko can rely on this Parisian conquest to say to himself:I can still do it“He is still too successful to be discouraged anyway.”As long as I can perform as well as I did this week (in Shanghai, Editor’s note), as long as I can fight toe to toe with the best, I will feel the need to try, and the motivation to do so. And we’ll see where it takes me“, he convinces himself. He does not know resignation. Which does not prevent a certain lucidity. About himself and about others.
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