If there was a second—a single shot, in reality—when the chemical composition of males’s tennis modified, it got here on September 10, 2011, within the semifinals of the U.S. Open, as Novak Djokovic confronted Roger Federer. On the time, Djokovic had received simply three Grand Slam tournaments, in contrast with Federer’s towering 16. Federer took a two-sets-to-love lead and seemed to be cruising to victory. However Djokovic—who had improved his health lately, taking over yoga and giving up gluten—received the subsequent two units, sending the match to a fifth and deciding set.
The followers in Arthur Ashe Stadium stood strongly behind Federer. This aggravated Djokovic. At instances, he grimaced on the followers and mocked them, bringing jeers. At 4–3 within the fifth set, Federer broke Djokovic’s serve to grab a 5–3 lead, offering him the chance to serve out the match. The group rose to its toes, cheering wildly. Federer then took a 40–15 lead, giving him two match factors. Victory was a serve away.
What occurred subsequent is revealing: Djokovic is sneering; he seems disgusted with the entire scene. Federer hits a tough serve out huge to Djokovic’s forehand. It’s a great serve. However Djokovic, powered by what seems to be pure disdain, smacks the ball as arduous as he can—like he doesn’t even care, like he’s not even attempting to win the purpose, an insolent whip of the racket—for a where-did-that-come-from? cross-court winner. The followers roar, and Djokovic eggs them on sarcastically as if to say, So now you’re cheering for me?
Federer seems surprised. However he nonetheless has one other match level in hand. The followers stay largely behind him. He units as much as serve once more. Djokovic is grinning and nodding his head, like some malevolent imp. This time Federer serves to Djokovic’s backhand and Djokovic returns the ball into the center of the court docket, the place Federer botches a forehand. The unforced error brings the sport to deuce. After that, the gamers commerce factors for a bit, however Djokovic finally wins the sport, after which the subsequent three, to win the match.
Afterward Federer, deflated and incredulous, appeared to really feel that Djokovic had dedicated some sort of offense towards tennis, dishonoring the game. The Serb, he stated, had given up: Dealing with double match level, Federer stated, Djokovic didn’t seem like somebody “who believes a lot anymore in successful. To lose towards somebody like that, it’s very disappointing, since you really feel like he was mentally out of it already. Simply will get the fortunate shot on the finish, and off you go.” Do you actually suppose Djokovic’s blistering return on the primary match level was attributable to “luck,” a reporter requested, versus “confidence”? “Confidence? Are you kidding me?” Federer stated. “I imply, please. Some gamers develop up and play like that—being down 5–2 within the third, and so they all simply begin slapping pictures … For me, that is very arduous to grasp. How will you play a shot like that on match level?” It was a uncommon failure of grace for the gentlemanly Swiss.
That single shot by Djokovic appeared to interrupt one thing in Federer; he was totally different after that. Positive, he nonetheless received two extra Australian Open championships and two extra Wimbledon championships—an enviable profession in itself for almost some other participant. However Djokovic had lodged a grain of sand within the gears of Federer’s equipment, throwing it off simply sufficient to make his successful appear much less inevitable. Djokovic, for his half, went on to beat Rafael Nadal within the finals the subsequent day, and from there simply saved methodically including to his assortment of Grand Slam titles. Since that day 12 years in the past, Djokovic has received 21 (and counting) further Grand Slam titles to Nadal’s 14 and Federer’s 4.
Even when, as a part of a stunning late-career resurgence, Federer made it again to the Wimbledon ultimate towards Djokovic, in 2019, these match factors he’d held and misplaced in 2011 appeared to reverberate throughout the years, echoing in his head. They have been actually echoing in mine as I watched: As soon as once more, Federer had two match factors towards Djokovic on his personal serve within the fifth set—and as soon as once more Djokovic fought off the match factors and received the championship, the primary participant since 1948 to come back from down a match level to win the Wimbledon ultimate.
Ever since that back-from-the-dead comeback towards Federer in 2011, Djokovic has been enshrouded in a ruthless, cold-blooded unkillability. Till you’ve pushed a stake by his coronary heart by successful match level, he retains coming and coming and coming. He revels in taking part in possum, cavalierly frittering units away early towards weaker gamers with a view to make the eventual comeback and execution all of the extra scrumptious.
What is maybe most intimidating about Djokovic is the steeliness of his nerve. The ice water in his veins will get chillier because the stakes get increased: The extra essential the purpose, the extra probably he’s to win it. The ATP retains monitor of what it calls “stress stats,” which measure efficiency on the highest-value, highest-stakes factors (break factors, tiebreakers, and many others). Djokovic, unsurprisingly, has the best rating on the pressure-stats listing amongst present gamers. However he additionally ranks highest all time by that metric, forward of Pete Sampras, Nadal, and Federer. Earlier than he misplaced a tiebreaker to Carlos Alcaraz within the Wimbledon championship final summer season, Djokovic had received a staggering 15 straight tiebreakers in main tournaments. When every part is on the road, he hardly ever falters. Which means that the ridiculous shot that broke Federer’s spirit in 2011 was not pure luck, however an early demonstration of his means to soak up the gang’s hostility and channel it right into a sort of darkish vitality that elevates his sport to a superhuman stage.
Inconveniently for partisans of Federer or Nadal, Djokovic’s case for being one of the best of the Large Three—and the best male participant of all time, and one of many biggest athletes of all time, throughout all sports activities—grows ever stronger. Although he misplaced within the semifinals of the Australian Open to Jannik Sinner in January, if he wins any of this yr’s remaining Grand Slam tournaments—and oddsmakers at the moment have him as the favourite for the U.S. Open, and an in depth second-favorite on the French Open and Wimbledon—it’ll attain the purpose of irrefutability. And I’m having a tough time with that—as a result of, like many different tennis followers, I can’t stand the man.
A few of Djokovic’s unlikability absolutely comes with the fearsome depth wanted to be an important champion: Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant and Larry Fowl and Tom Brady and Muhammad Ali have been ruthless towards anybody they have been competing towards (and generally alongside of). And there have been loads of unlikable tennis gamers earlier than. Jimmy Connors—who, in case you consider Andre Agassi, was narcissistic and cantankerous—was beloved for his gritty taking part in fashion and for, a minimum of on this nation, his brash Americanness. Others, such because the Romanian Ilie Năstase (nicknamed “Nasty” for antics like utilizing an unconventionally “spaghetti-strung” racket, throwing mood tantrums, collaborating in a near-riot in a stadium, and making sexist and racist feedback) and John McEnroe (who was a petulant brat on the court docket earlier than turning into a revered elder statesman of the game), acquired a sort of darkish charisma, and so they have been embraced as rakish antiheroes.
However all of those gamers have relished their roles. Daniil Medvedev, the Russian at the moment ranked No. 5 on the earth, additionally embraces his standing as a villain, reveling in his obnoxiousness; this offers him a perverse attraction. His consolation in his villainy, seasoned flippantly with irony, endears him to followers. (Or a minimum of to this fan.)
Djokovic’s downside is that he manifestly hates being hated, hates that he doesn’t obtain the love and respect that Nadal and Federer did, at the same time as he surpasses their on-court achievements. When Djokovic began successful majors within the late 2000s, he appeared to count on that he could be embraced by followers the best way Federer and Nadal have been. And when he wasn’t, his resentment fueled his need for adulation, which made him strive more durable to be favored, which solely tended to alienate individuals, as he oscillated between makes an attempt at ingratiating himself with the followers and outbursts of resentment after they didn’t reply to him as he wished. “I simply really feel like he has a sick obsession with eager to be favored,” Nick Kyrgios, the fearsomely gifted however risky Australian participant, stated of him in 2019. “I simply really feel he needs to be favored a lot that I simply can’t stand him.”
Djokovic has largely his personal habits responsible for his complicated public picture. He claims a mystical connection to wolves, primarily based on an encounter he says he had with one as a bit of boy in Serbia. And there may be certainly one thing lupine about Djokovic: the bared tooth, the feral snarling, the predatory ruthlessness, the bulging-eyed howls he emits after successful key factors. Perhaps he acquired these qualities as a survival mechanism throughout childhood. At age 11, he spent months sheltering from nightly bombings in Belgrade. Throughout the day, he’d apply on what was left of bombed-out tennis courts. “We’d go to the location of the latest assaults, figuring that in the event that they bombed one place yesterday, they in all probability wouldn’t bomb it right now,” he wrote in his 2013 guide, Serve to Win. It’s the kind of triumph-in-the-face-of-adversity story that tends to endear a participant to the general public. However the guide’s subtitle—The 14-Day Gluten-Free Plan for Bodily and Psychological Excellence—bespeaks Djokovic’s extra mercenary instincts (which, in equity, might also be a product of these wartime years).
A couple of years in the past, an enterprising tennis fan compiled a YouTube video known as “89 Causes Everybody Hates Novak Djokovic.” Earlier than ATP Media blocked the video on copyright grounds, practically half one million viewers have been handled to 24 minutes of Djokovic smashing rackets, yelling at ball children, yelling at followers, yelling at umpires, yelling at his coaches, quitting matches when he was behind, and taking questionable (and generally preposterous) harm timeouts. He was disqualified from the 2021 U.S. Open when, after shedding a sport in a fourth-round match, he struck a ball in frustration and pegged a line choose instantly within the throat. He refused to get vaccinated towards COVID-19, which led him to get deported from Australia and miss the 2022 Australian Open, in addition to the 2022 U.S. Open as a result of he wasn’t eligible for a visa. He knowingly uncovered individuals to the virus when he did an interview and a photograph shoot in France, the latter unmasked, after testing constructive.
Djokovic has been photographed having a meal with a former commander of the Drina Wolves, among the many perpetrators of the Bosnian genocide; extra not too long ago, his father confirmed up at a event with what seemed to be a professional–Vladimir Putin bike gang waving Russian flags. (Djokovic Sr. apologized for the “disruption.”) And for these already predisposed to seek out Djokovic a shady character, his ardent anti-vaccine stance sits oddly alongside his willingness to ingest mysterious concoctions blended with plain surreptitiousness by his group, to not point out his perception within the energy of the Taopatch (a plastic-and-metal patch he wears affixed his chest whose “nanocrystals emit photons towards the physique offering a number of well being advantages,” based on the corporate that sells it). All of which makes him the Aaron Rodgers {of professional} tennis. (Rodgers, unsurprisingly, has taken to Instagram in assist of Djokovic’s anti-vax stance.)
Djokovic’s will to win is fearsome. However when mandatory, he resorts to go video games and skulduggery. He has an uncanny knack for resurrecting himself from the useless after visits to the lavatory. Within the ultimate of the Cincinnati Open towards Carlos Alcaraz final summer season, Djokovic was getting badly outplayed by the younger Spaniard, and gave the impression to be affected by warmth stroke (because the Tennis Channel commentator Jim Courier put it on the time), requiring medical consideration and struggling to remain on his toes. Then, after a visit to the restroom, he roared again to life, Lazarus from the useless, in the end prevailing 5–7, 7–6, 7–6. Within the finals of the French Open towards Stefanos Tsitsipas in 2021, down two units to like, Djokovic took a seven-minute rest room break after which got here again to win. What tactical or emotional adjustment, he was requested, had he made within the rest room that allowed him to come back again from two units down towards a participant 11 years his junior? “I advised myself I can do it, inspired myself,” Djokovic stated. Within the quarterfinals of Wimbledon the next yr, after dropping the primary two units to Sinner, 14 years his junior, he retreated to—the place else?—the lavatory, the place he stated he managed to “reanimate” himself with a “pep discuss” within the bathroom mirror, throughout which he gave himself “constructive affirmations” and channeled the spirit of Kobe Bryant. Then he got here again out and dominated the subsequent three units.
Djokovic makes such frequent and efficient use of toilet breaks that in 2021 The Wall Road Journal performed a statistical evaluation, calculating that he’d received 83.3 p.c of the units he performed following rest room breaks in main tournaments since 2013, 5 share factors increased than his total win charge. Other than speaking to himself within the mirror, what’s he as much as within the privateness of the lavatory? Anti-Djokovic conspiracists level meaningfully to his willingness to ingest these mysterious concoctions ready by his coaches throughout matches. However the Worldwide Tennis Federation has an anti-doping coverage and conducts common drug testing; Djokovic has complained concerning the intrusiveness of the testing however has by no means failed one. And the foundations do allow rest room breaks, restricted to three-minutes twice per match (5 minutes if they’re additionally altering garments). These cut-off dates are hardly ever enforced, nevertheless, and Djokovic takes common benefit of that.
I’ve tried to love Djokovic. I respect his fashion of play: He’s arguably one of the best service returner within the historical past of the sport, and among the best total defensive retrievers, stretching for inconceivable pictures together with his boneless Gumby limbs. And people 89 (or extra) causes to hate him however, possibly he’s not a nasty man. Different women and men on the professional tour say they like him. Even Kygrios, the Aussie who professed a couple of years in the past to seek out him unbearable, has come round to say that he and Djokovic now have a “bromance.” He has advocated for more cash for lower-ranked gamers. He was the one participant Naomi Osaka known as out for supporting her when she controversially refused, on mental-health grounds, to do press conferences on the French Open in 2021. He’s good, speaks a number of languages, and is an uncanny mimic.
However rooting pursuits in sports activities might be irrational and ill-founded, the arbitrariness of their software bearing no relation to their depth. Perhaps my incapacity to love Djokovic displays badly on me. That I favor Roger Federer, all easy class and Swiss-watch precision, maybe suggests an aesthetic (even an aristocratic) prejudice towards the grittier, sweatier, try-hard fashion that Djokovic brings to the sport. However nobody is sweatier or grittier than Rafael Nadal, a Tasmanian satan in a cloud of pink clay, and I like him not just for his brute baseline grinding and the nuclear depth of his sport however for his manifest sweetness of soul: He’s proof that an adamantine will to win can coexist with sportsmanship and humility.
Djokovic could also be most likable, or most relatable, in defeat. When he fell to Medvedev within the 2021 U.S. Open finals, failing in his quest to win a uncommon calendar Grand Slam (all 4 majors in the identical yr), and ended up sobbing underneath a towel in his chair, he obtained essentially the most enthusiastic and appreciative cheers of his profession. And when he was gracious in defeat to Alcaraz within the Wimbledon ultimate final summer season, some famous that possibly now he might lastly transfer, as John McEnroe had earlier than him, from ill-mannered churl to revered tennis statesman. Perhaps now, within the night of his profession, he might lastly earn not simply the respect however the love accorded to Nadal and Federer.
However Djokovic appears extra inclined to rage towards the dying of the sunshine. He advised 60 Minutes that the youthful gamers who’re attempting to wrest away his crown “awaken a beast in me.” (A wolf, I think.) On the U.S. Open final September, he collected his twenty fourth Grand Slam. Earlier than shedding to Sinner in Melbourne in January, he’d had a 33-match successful streak on the Australian Open, stretching throughout 4 years (which included his scorched-earth revenge tour in 2023, when he received the Open after being banned for his vaccination standing the yr earlier than). He’s at the moment the No. 1 participant on the earth, by a good margin—the oldest, at 37, ever to carry the highest spot. And he continues to run on vinegar and bile: Throughout his two weeks on the Australian Open this yr, he criticized the up-and-coming Black American participant Ben Shelton for not displaying him correct “respect”; yelled at a heckling fan, telling him to come back down and “say that to my face”; and aggressively stared down opponents after successful pictures. Extra not too long ago, in his semifinal loss to the Norwegian Casper Ruud at Monte Carlo in April, he shouted at a fan to “shut the fuck up.”
That final incident could also be telling, as a result of Djokovic’s outburst got here when he was unraveling within the third set, throughout a match he uncharacteristically failed to come back again and win. May this be proof that Djokovic is, lastly, shedding his invincibility? Generally when the top comes, it comes quick; what as soon as appeared inconceivable seems looking back to have been inevitable. Ruud, a soft-spoken Scandinavian with some of the highly effective forehands within the sport, had by no means earlier than come near beating Djokovic. However Ruud, a minimum of, is a top-10 participant.
Luca Nardi is just not. A couple of weeks earlier than Monte Carlo, within the third spherical at Indian Wells, Nardi, a 20-year-old Italian, who was ranked 123rd on the earth on the time, grew to become the lowest-ranked participant to beat Djokovic in 18 years—and the lowest-ranked participant ever to beat him in an enormous event. On the time of their assembly, Djokovic had received 19 extra Grand Slam championships than Nardi had received skilled matches (5). Nardi had in reality failed to achieve common entry to the primary draw at Indian Wells, sneaking in solely as what’s referred to as a “fortunate loser”—a participant who will get a free go into the event regardless of failing to qualify for it, by changing a competitor who has to withdraw on the eleventh hour on account of harm.
That Djokovic acquired defeated by a fortunate loser was surprising. Much less surprising, maybe, was Djokovic’s habits throughout and after the match. Within the third sport of the second set, Nardi momentarily froze in confusion throughout a degree as a result of he thought a ball that landed in could be known as out. He recovered in time to hit the ball and win the purpose from an off-guard Djokovic, who’d been thrown by Nardi’s pause. Nardi had executed nothing mistaken. However Djokovic complained to the umpire that Nardi’s hesitation ought to have been dominated a “hindrance,” and that the purpose ought to have been taken away from him. “It’s a desperation transfer,” Andy Roddick, the latest American participant to be ranked No. 1 on the earth (approach again in 2004), stated of Djokovic’s try to litigate the purpose after it was performed. “I don’t see any world the place Novak ought to ever be determined towards somebody ranked 123 on the earth.”
What occurred afterward was worse. Nardi had grown up idolizing Djokovic, with a poster of him on the wall of his childhood bed room, and he had simply received by far the most important match of his profession. However when assembly on the web for his or her post-match handshake, Djokovic provided solely barbed congratulations, presuming to chastise him. “It’s not proper,” Djokovic stated, in Italian, “however bravo.” The tennis journalist Ricky Dimon, amongst others, known as out the world No. 1 for this. “Appalling that Djokovic introduced up the stopping play when he shook Nardi’s hand on the web,” he wrote on X. “1) that time had nothing to do with the result of the match, 2) it’s not Nardi’s name to make, 3) umpire made the correct name.”
A month later, within the third spherical of the Rome Open, which he has received six instances, Djokovic once more misplaced weakly to a lower-ranked participant, this time to the world No. 32, Alejandro Tabilo of Chile, who had by no means earlier than crushed a top-10 participant. Djokovic regarded adrift on the court docket; his timing and steadiness have been off. Extra astonishing, he regarded anxious, double-faulting at key moments, together with match level. Afterward, he made excuses. After his earlier match, two days earlier, he’d been hit on the pinnacle with a water bottle unintentionally dropped by an autograph-seeking fan within the stands, and Djokovic intimated {that a} concussion may need brought about him to battle together with his steadiness. Perhaps so.
A couple of days in the past, Djokovic stunned the tennis world by accepting a late wild-card entry into this week’s Geneva Open, a comparatively low-level event. He appears belatedly to have concluded that he must attempt to play himself again into championship type earlier than the French Open begins. But when he’s not had sufficient match play not too long ago, that’s his personal doing. After his earlier losses to Nardi and Ruud, Djokovic had instantly withdrawn from the subsequent tournaments he’d been scheduled to play in, the Miami Open and the Madrid Open, respectively. This was pushed, he stated, by the necessity to preserve vitality for the Grand Slams, which has been his technique lately. Competing for the main championships at Djokovic’s age requires cautious stewarding of assets. And the French Open begins on Sunday. However the abrupt withdrawals had a whiff of pique—of sulking in defeat, of insulating himself from shedding to lesser mortals by refusing to play them till he’s on a stage commensurate together with his stature and in match sufficient situation to beat them.
However his technique could also be working: As of Thursday, he was into the Geneva semifinals, suggesting that after once more he could also be rounding into type at simply the correct time to defend his French Open title beginning subsequent week.
For a very long time I resisted the notion that Djokovic might ever be the equal of Federer and Nadal. However because the years handed and the Serb’s trophies piled up, my arguments on behalf of the Swiss and the Spaniard have needed to grow to be increasingly sophistic. I could lastly have run out of arguments. However I’ll make one ultimate try.
In that 2019 Wimbledon ultimate, Federer outplayed Djokovic for a lot of the match, and he truly received extra factors than Djokovic did. However tennis scoring, just like the Electoral Faculty, permits the one that does essentially the most successful to lose. And, just like the 2016 election, this raises tantalizing counterfactuals: However for 3 factors—one every in 2010 (one other U.S. Open semifinal through which Djokovic fought off two match factors to upset Federer), 2011, and 2019—Federer may now have 23 Grand Slam titles and Djokovic solely 22, and the complexion of the argument over the Biggest Participant of All Time would look totally different.
But I confess that if my life relied on a single level of tennis and I needed to choose a professional in his prime to play it for me, I’d choose Djokovic as my champion. As a result of had Djokovic not been banned from two Grand Slams for being unvaccinated towards COVID, and disqualified from one other for pegging that line choose within the throat, he may nicely have 27 Grand Slam titles. (Such is the function of contingency and luck within the unfolding of sports activities narratives, as in life.)
So, okay, I (grudgingly) acknowledge Djokovic’s greatness. However that doesn’t imply I don’t take pleasure in watching him lose, or that I would like his reign of dominance to increase any longer. And the proof is mounting that it received’t. Years therefore, we could possibly isolate the match, or the very level, when looking back it grew to become clear that his grip on dominance had weakened. Will it develop into ultimately summer season’s Wimbledon, when Alcaraz stared down Djokovic within the second-set tiebreak, successful it 8–6 and breaking the Serb’s astonishing streak of 15 straight tiebreak wins, puncturing his aura of invincibility, dispelling the phantasm that he might by no means be crushed within the highest-stakes moments? Or will it’s his loss on this yr’s Australian Open semifinals, when he appeared surprisingly listless—or possibly, lastly, simply outdated—as he acquired steamrolled by the hard-hitting Sinner? Will it’s his hapless loss to Alejandro Tabilo in Rome? Or will it’s his loss to the fortunate loser Luca Nardi at Indian Wells, his botching of that bizarre second-set level and his truculent, ungracious response to it?
That sports activities reveal character is a truism spouted commonly by coaches and motivational audio system. However it’s not inaccurate. A vital a part of Djokovic’s character, actually, is his steely psychological fortitude; that’s why I’d need him taking part in the purpose to save lots of my life. However for the participant I’d like kids to emulate, in tennis or in life? Give me Alcaraz or Sinner—the way forward for males’s tennis—who each exhibit not simply fiery aggressive spirit however sportsmanship on the court docket, and generosity and kindness off it. Or give me Roger Federer.
Or give me Rafa Nadal, who—whereas his modern Djokovic was having fun with among the best years of his profession—endured a Job-like litany of accidents and setbacks, lacking nearly all of 2023 and falling to No. 644 on the earth with dignity and stoicism. Who, as his physique betrays him in a number of methods (stomach tear, hip tear, one other stomach tear, quadriceps tear, stomach tear once more, again bother, all after an harm that required him to play together with his left foot anesthetized, so it was like he was taking part in on a stump), is attempting to make a capstone run in what’s going to nearly absolutely be the final yr of his profession. It might be fantastic—actually storybook—if Nadal might declare a ultimate Grand Slam title at Roland Garros, the French pink clay courts he has lorded over for twenty years, amassing a staggering 112–3 document and 14 championships there. Alas, that’s unlikely to occur. (Numerous oddsmakers have him anyplace from the third favourite to the eighth, regardless of his having received just a few skilled matches prior to now 16 months and being ranked within the 600s.) Because the event approached and his performances have been lackluster, Nadal saved saying that if his physique didn’t really feel higher by the beginning of Roland Garros, he wouldn’t play. However he has arrived in Paris and is within the draw, although he had the again luck to land Alexander Zverev, who’s at the moment No. 4 on the earth, as his first-round opponent Sunday.
I, and thousands and thousands of others world wide, would swoon if Nadal have been to in some way magically win his fifteenth French Open. However because the event begins, my important hope is that Djokovic does not win it. And, for the primary time in years, my expectation is that he received’t; the intimations of his tennis mortality have grow to be too loud, the depredations of age lastly overtaking him. As his bodily powers wane, his fanatical competitiveness and otherworldly psychological toughness can solely carry him thus far. To my eye, Djokovic could also be all of a sudden, lastly, executed. Which is what I’ve believed about Djokovic in dozens of particular person matches through the years … nearly all of which he got here again to win.