On the eve of the 2020 French Open, I (as an admitted Djokovic fan) had what could only be described as a premonitory nightmare. I dreamt that Rafael Nadal had routed Djokovic not only in straight sets, but 6-0, 6-2, 6-3. Relieved when I awoke, I went downstairs to watch a match and realized that it's not always a good thing when dreams come true, even if Djokovic lost 7-5 in the third set. But if Nole is worthy of the title of "King of Melbourne Park," then he lost decisively to the undisputed "King of Roland Garros" with an amazing"lucky 13th" French Open Championships.
Djokovic's 2020, like much of the world's, has been extraordinarily trying. As a leader of the ATP, he came in for much criticism for scheduling a tournament amid the Covid crisis, with disastrous results. After winning the 2020 Australian Open, with Wimbledon postponed, his French Open final against his most frequent opponent, Rafa, was one-sided in the extreme. To add insult to injury, his front-running status in the 2020 U.S. Open came to an abrupt halt when he accidentally hit a ball into the throat of a linesperson, resulting in his automatic disqualification. A bit unfair to be sure, but this is a pretty firm and worthwhile rule. No one, however, could predict the after-effects of these shocks to his self-confidence.
Ironically, the 2021 Australian Open posed no such problem, inasmuch as this was the first Major in which there would be no linespersons. What we would have would only be disembodied electronic voices-"male" and "female" calling serves and lines with emotionless precision. (Kind of fruitless to get mad at a machine, I suppose.) For the 33-year-old Djokovic, both his number-one ranking and top seeding for the 2021 Australian Open were deceptively optimistic. The draw included GOAT-candidate Rafael Nadal, playing at the very top of his superb game. Breathing down the necks of Nadal and Roger Federer (who, at 39, has sat out much of 2020 and 2021 due to injury), were the "Young Turks:" 2020 U.S. Open winner Dominic Thiem, Alexander "Sasha" Zverev, Stefanos Tsitsipas, and, at the apex of his still-rising game, Daniil Medvedev. Few would argue that the best player of 2021 (so far) has been the 25 year-old Medvedev. Consider this: he'd won twenty-one matches in a row, twelve of which have been against top-ten players. Entering the final against Djokovic, Medvedev had won his last ten sets. Djokovic's road to the final has been--to put it mildly--fraught. When up two sets to love in his third-round match against top American seed, Taylor Fritz, the Joker pulled up short during one of his patented splits, possibly tearing an abdominal muscle. In any event, Djokovic (occasionally accused of over-emphasizing injuries) was unquestionably in considerable pain. After dropping the next two sets, and playing on little more than will-power, he managed to survive the fifth set. After doing so, he expressed a legitimate concern as to his ability to recover sufficiently to continue in the tournament. Given his sorry showing at the French Open final and his disastrous exit from the U.S. Open, withdrawing from the site of his most numerous Major successes, would have marked a sorry continuation of traumatic "Grand Slam" appearances.
One more word about the amazing Medvedev. At six-foot six, he has a serve like a cannon, and moves with the agility of a much shorter man. He appears to have no flaws. From the first time I saw him play, it seemed as if he could hit as hard as he had to, but never overhitting. All in all, he has as controlled an aggressive game as I've ever seen. There is no doubt in my mind that it is just a matter of time before he wins his first of what will likely be many majors. Djokovic has long recognized that Medvedev is not only an extraordinarily talented player, but the "man to beat." Fond as I am of the Joker, and respectful of his marvelous skills, I recognize that, at 33, time is no longer on his side--especially with the high quality of players nipping at the heels of the "big three," now, more realistically, the "big two."
And so, although the number-one seed, as sage a tennis analyst as Patrick McEnroe, picked Medvedev in four sets. While hoping for the best, I was inclined to agree. Statistics like being 41-0 when seeded number one at the Australian Open are fine and dandy, but they are only as unbreakable as your next performance. The first set, to me, was decisive. After trading breaks, I knew that Nole, after having been up a break really had to win the first set if he wanted to hoist his record-breaking 9th trophy down under. Even if he did, I was not ruling out a Medvedev win. How could I? Indeed, after Djokovic won the nail-biting first set 7-5, Medvedev started the second set with a break. But then, Djokovic adjusted his game--as he does so well--and kept battering the ball up the middle and wore Medvedev down, no mean feat that. In the blink of an eye, Nole broke back and--much to the pleasure of the overwhelmingly pro-Djokovic crowd--was up two sets to love. Speaking of crowd favorites, it is rare (outside of Australia) for Nole to enjoy crowd support. At Wimbledon, for example, 2019's Federer-Djokovic final was so overwhelmingly pro-Roger, that Nole's focus had to be, and was, extraordinary, For a great champion, and (in my view) he's both an unusually good sport (he still applauds other people's shots, and when's the last time you saw either Federer or Nadal do that?) and spokesman for men's tennis. Okay, I'll get off my soap-box. After all, Both Rafa and Roger are eminently deserving of their crowd support. I just think the Joker deserves more than his flag-waving Serbian faithful pulling for him (not that, as Seinfeld would remind us, there's anything wrong with that.
The third set was crucial, and-before Djokovic ran away with it--closer than it appeared. At love-three, Medvedev won a drop shot exchange with an absurdly preposterous spin to put him on the board. The critical juncture came at 2-4. Joker went up 15-love with an incredible serve and volley. Medvedev proceeded to run off two magnificent winners to go up 15-30 and implored the crowd to cheer, which they did. The Joker quickly responded with three strong points and closed off the game forcing a net after a long rally. That, as they say, was 'all she wrote." A deflated Medvedev was broken--both literally and figuratively at 2-5, and a jubilant Djokovic made a (for him) surprisingly impressive sky-hook overhead and fell to the ground in victory. They are good friends, and embraced at the net with a great deal of mutual respect. One thing that no one would have predicted was how dominant Djokovic's serves would be in this tournament. In was not only(for him) a record number of aces, but the marvelous precision and placement of his serves which helped pace his march to the championship.
The book on who, of Federer, Nadal and Djokovic will ultimately be the "GOAT" (greatest of all time) is still open. At 20, 20 and 18, respectively, it is still very much too close to call. That said, with today's remarkable victory over the best of the challengers, Djokovic is not only still very much in the running but--at a stage of life when even the greatest of the greats can no longer take grand-slam victories for granted--today's dominant performance makes him, in John McEnroe's words, "arguably the greatest of all time." Regardless, every serious tennis fan knows that (as long as the majors remain best of five) we are unlikely to ever see a serious challenge to any of the "big three's" achievements. And how lucky we are for the game we so love to have been witness to something the likes of which we'll never see again.
And, in these most terrible times of Covid, how wonderful (after five-days of empty stands) it was to see (and hear) fans cheering two such great champions--one who is already in the history books, and the other someone likely to write some history of his own in the years to come.
