MELBOURNE, Australia — Novak Djokovic came to
Australia with a mission or, really, a series of them.
اضافة اعلان
To win the championship he had won nine times once more. To
win a 22nd Grand Slam men’s singles title and draw even with his rival Rafael
Nadal at the top of that list. To remove any doubt anyone might have about
whether he remains the world’s dominant player — the most commanding player of
the last decade and now this one, too. To show the world that the only way to
keep him from winning nearly any tennis tournament is to not let him play.
Check. Check. Check. And check.A year after Australia deported him over his refusal to be
vaccinated against COVID-19,
Novak Djokovic reclaimed the Grand Slam title he
has won more than any other, capturing a record 10th championship at the
Australian Open by beating Stefanos Tsitsipas 6-3, 7-6 (4), 7-6 (5) on Sunday.
After one last forehand off Tsitsipas’ racket floated long
to end a match that felt lopsided despite the two tiebreakers,
Djokovic turned and stared at his family and coaches sitting in his box. He pointed to his
head, his heart and then just below his waistband, letting the world in on his
team’s code language and telling it that winning Sunday took everything he had.
“It takes a big heart, mental strength, and the other thing
as well,” he said with a laugh once the night had turned into the early
morning.
He wore a jacket emblazoned with a bright number 22 just
under the right side of his collarbone and called this triumph “the biggest
victory in my life”.
In addition to gaining pole position to surge past the
injured Nadal on the career Grand Slam list — and in the greatest-of-all-time
debate —
Djokovic also reclaimed the top spot in the world rankings, making
him, at 35, the second-oldest player to reach that rarefied realm, behind only Roger
Federer, who was nearly 37 during his last stint on top of the tennis world.
Djokovic turns 36 on May 22. It’s probably a bad idea to bet against his taking
that record from Federer, as he has so many others.
The feat is even more noteworthy given how much
tennis Djokovic has had to miss in the last year. He can’t play in the United States
because of his refusal to get a COVID-19 shot. Unless there is a change in that
policy, he will again miss a major tournament in Indian Wells, California, in
March, and the hard court swing this summer, which includes the US Open.
He is either stubborn or a man of principle — and more
likely both.
Djokovic’s score sheets in this tournament might suggest
that these last two weeks were little more than a vacation Down Under, with
some tennis thrown in. He dropped only a single set in seven matches. His
fourth-round, quarterfinal, and semifinal tests were nearly complete wipeouts
of opponents.
When Djokovic is on as he was in the second week of this
tournament, his game is all about firsts. Line-scraping first serves that give
him the first point of his service games. First breaks of his opponents’ serves
that become a first dagger, and first-set wins for a player who rarely lets
anyone creep back into a match.
He does not let opponents catch their breath, smacking
returns at their shins, forcing them to hit yet another shot, and then another
one, after they think they have won a point. It is tennis as a form of
suffocation. Tommy Paul, the American who was
Djokovic’s victim in the
semifinal, said when it was over that much of the first set had been a blur.
Paul has played tennis his whole life, but this time, the seconds between
points, between the moment he hit a ball and the moment he was on the run
chasing the next one, have never passed so quickly.
Filled with hazardsBut Djokovic’s reclamation mission in Australia was filled
with hazards. Ahead of the tournament, he aggravated his hamstring, forcing him
to take the court wearing a thick strapping around the injured area until the
final. He hobbled through the first week, playing without the magical movement
that is the foundation of his game.
Goran Ivanisevic,
Djokovic’s coach, said 97 percent of
players would have pulled out of the tournament.
“He is from outer space,” Ivanisevic said of Djokovic, who
became even more aggressive because of his injury, smacking his forehand
whenever he saw a chance to end a point quickly. “His brain works differently.”
And then, as with so many of his previous injuries, a
combination of rest, massages and painkillers made the pain and discomfort go
away when it mattered most. He heard the noise on social media questioning
whether the leg had ever been hurt at all and shot back that no one ever
questioned the validity of other players’ injuries — an unsubtle reference to
the always banged-up Nadal.
Then, just as he was hitting top speed, his father, Srdjan,
was caught on video taking a picture with fans outside Rod Laver Arena, some of
whom were holding Russian flags, after
Djokovic’s win in the quarterfinals.
Serbia and Russia have close political and cultural ties. Tennis crowds outside
Serbia almost always arrive with some hostility for Djokovic, and they pull
hard for his opponents, who are usually underdogs.
Djokovic dealt with Paul and then dealt with the public,
assuring everyone that his father had never meant to show support for the war
in Ukraine, that as a someone who grew up in the war-torn Balkans he knew the
horrors of violent conflict and would never support it.
After that, only Tsitsipas, for years seen as tennis’s heir
apparent, stood in his way.
Maybe Sunday night in Australia, where the large, spirited
Greek population has turned Tsitsipas into an adopted son, would be the night,
especially with the No. 1 ranking on the line.
Then again, maybe not. Tsitsipas came out without the ease
and fluidity that he had played with for nearly two weeks, and he fell behind
early.
Djokovic barely seemed to break a sweat as he took the first set.
In the second set, though, Tsitsipas’ arm seemed to loosen,
the forehands started to bang, and the windmill one-hand backhands started to
whip.
This will undoubtedly be the hour that keeps Tsitsipas up at
night in the coming weeks. The netted volley that would have given him a chance
to break Djokovic’s serve at 4-3. The tentative return of Djokovic’s meatball
of a second serve when Tsitsipas had set point. The long forehand and the loose
backhand — the stroke Djokovic picked on all night that gave him the edge he
would not give up in the tiebreaker.
“He’s the greatest that has ever held a tennis racket,”
Tsitsipas said of Djokovic as he held his runner-up plate once more.
Djokovic is the game’s best front-runner, winning roughly 95
percent of the matches in which he wins the first set. He has lost a two-set
lead only once, 13 years ago.
They traded service breaks in the first two games of the
third set, and then traded service games until yet another tiebreaker. Like the
match itself, this one was not nearly as close as the final numbers. Tsitsipas
sprayed his shots long and into the net, allowing Djokovic to grab a 5-0 lead.
And while Tsitsipas made it close, winning five of the next
six points, as Djokovic tightened his game and Tsitsipas swung his racket with
nothing to lose, there was little question how this would end — only when.
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