The legend of Novak Djokovic
Novak Djokovic scripts history to become Wimbledon champion for a record 7th time, 4 in a row.
January. Novak Djokovic landed in Australia, having been given an exemption to play at the Grand Slam event. He needed the exemption as he was unvaccinated and refused to take the vaccine because he says it’s his choice of what he puts inside his body. Fair.
Coincidentally, his visa seemed to have gotten some issues. He spent the night and the next day at the hotel where asylum seekers coming to Australia are grounded. He took it to the court, and the court cleared him, allowing him to play at the tournament. Remember, none of this had anything to do with the vaccine, as he already had the exemption. It was due to his visa issues.
Now, he stepped onto the court and started practicing. But by then the news spread like fire all over the world. Twitter was on fire, with very few things to believe amid all the chaos. The visa issues were now overtaken by his status of being unvaccinated, and how he was a threat to public safety with the pandemic still lingering. The Minister for Immigration canceled his visa, citing the aforementioned reason. Novak accepted, didn’t challenge the decision, and left the nation. What followed is a 6-month journey of mental recovery. He got to play minimal tennis, with nations not allowing unvaccinated players to play. Gets beaten by players like Jiri Vesely and A. Davidovich Fokina. Gets bageled by Andrey Rublev at Serbia Open. But one thing remained the same, he was never truly beaten.
Played the semifinal of Madrid open, and in a classic match gets ousted by Carlos Alcaraz, who was defeating everyone in and out. The scoreline? 7-6, 5-7, 6-7. It was this close. He was getting closer. Now he played the Italian open the next week and defeated players like Karatsev, Wawrinka, FAA, Ruud, and Tsitsipas in straight sets to win another Master 1000 title and took his tally to 38. Biggest takeaways? Bageled Tsitsipas (a very strong clay player) in the final. Got to his 1000 ATP tour win. He was back, Novak Djokovic was back.
May. Paris. Roland Garros. Novak got a very tough draw, to win the title he has to potentially go through the likes of Rafael Nadal, Carlos Alcaraz, Zverev, and probably another final with Tsitsipas. It was apparent that it wasn’t going to be easy. He eased past the earlier rounds in straight sets to set up a meeting with Rafael Nadal. The interesting point to note here? He went to this match as a favorite to win it. Exactly. He was back. Back to his very(maybe) best, that he was entering the quarter-final match against the greatest clay player in history as a favorite. The result, a not so much of a classic match ends with Nadal winning it in 4 sets. Novak bottles a break lead in the 4th set and fails to close it out to take the match to the 5th set. Novak was back, but he was cooked. He looked completely tired at the end of the match.
June. Wimbledon. Novak rested for 3 weeks and skipped the grass tournaments which are considered essential for the preparations needed to play at Wimbledon. Got a good draw. To win the title, he had to potentially get past Carlos Alcaraz/Jannik Sinner and Matteo Berrettini/Rafael Nadal. He was entering as a 3-time defending champion, 6-time overall champion, and undefeated at Wimbledon since 2017. He last lost a match at centre court in….2013 to then-champion Andy Murray. Novak was top-seeded, as Russian and Belarus players got banned to enter the Championships.
1R. vs S. Kwon. The Korean makes Novak run for his victory. Breaks him 2 times to take the 2nd set 6-3. Novak wakes up and finishes the match. 6-3, 3-6, 6-3, 6-4. He wasn’t at his best, but he was feeling fine enough.
2R. vs T. Kokkinakis. Relatively easy match, as Kokkinakis gets only one break point the whole match. Novak plays well but Kokkinakis plays poorly too. 6-1, 6-4, 6-2.
3R. vs M. Kecmanović. Novak wakes up and chooses destruction. Bagels his countrymen to start the match and ends it quickly with 6-0, 6-3, 6-4. Novak plays much better and is getting more and more comfortable.
4R. vs T. van Rijthoven. Wild card. Excellent serve. Defeated Medvedev (world number 1) to win his first ATP tour title a few weeks ago. The result? 20 aces past Djokovic and converts 1/4 break points to take the 2nd set 6-4. Response from Novak? The greatest returner of the ball the game has ever seen shows up and eases past the wild card. 6-2, 4-6, 6-1, 6-2. Novak was getting exactly what he needed, opponents to show up. So he gets to play more and gets to play better.
Quater-final. vs J. Sinner. Jannik Sinner had already defeated the likes of Isner and Carlos Alcaraz to set up a meeting with Novak. And oh boy he played some wonderful tennis to take the first two sets. Novak wasn’t feeling good. Sinner was relentless. Novak had previously come back 6 times in his career from 2 sets down to win a match. Most recently against Tsitsipas in the final of the Roland Garros in 2021. The response? A toilet break and a mirror pep talk to defeat Sinner in 5 sets. The Novak we wanted to see showed up. 5-7, 2-6, 6-3, 6-2, 6-2.
Semifinal. vs C. Norrie. Against the crowd and a very motivated hometown player. Norrie started nicely to take the 1st set 6-2. He broke Novak’s serve 3 times in this set. It was complete horror. The response? Norrie never got to break again in the match and won only 10 points of Novak's serve in the next three sets. Novak was at it again. 2-6, 6-3, 6-2, 6-4.
Final. vs N. Kyrgios. No one expected this final, but some must have dreamed about it for sure. Nadal pulled out before the semifinal due to his abdominal injury which made sure Nick plays his first Grand Slam final that too against Novak Djokovic. The interesting thing to note? Nick was probably the only big tour player to raise his voice on whatever was happening/happened with Novak in Australia. He previously spoke ill about Novak but stood up for him when it mattered the most. The result? A bromance.
Novak defeated Nick in the final after losing the first set. 4-6, 6-3, 6-4, 7-6.
Novak Djokovic bid adieu to the horror and sufferings of the first 6 months to lift the Wimbledon title for the 4th consecutive time. He has now won the title 7 times, equalling the great Pete Sampras who inspired him to take up tennis when he was 4 in Serbia, and 1 less than the great Roger Federer, who has won the title 8 times. The real Novak Djokovic everyone knows showed up at the right time, the greatest returner of the game showed up at the right time, and the mental toughness showed up too. It all synced up. The result is a 21st Grand Slam title, one more than the great Roger Federer and one less than his longtime biggest rival, Rafael Nadal.
Novak has extended his winning streak at Wimbledon and on centre court. It is only fitting that the centre court got to witness one of its greatest ever champions win another title on its 100th anniversary.
As a fan, I am following the journey of Novak Djokovic ever since I was a small kid. To witness him achieve new greatness is something I will always love to watch. His mental toughness is something only a few others in the sport have come to match. The way he reads the game is pretty much unrivaled. I have no issues with whether or not he is vaccinated, my lifelong support for a great champion can never get weak by his choice of what he wants to put inside of his body. Hoping to see the situation change in the coming weeks/months and we get to see more of Novak Djokovic play tennis. This is not the only time Wimbledon has lifted Novak’s career when it was hanging on a cliff. He won a title in 2018 after his elbow surgery and ended a 1.5-year Grand Slam drought. Hoping to see this title lift Novak up so he can continue his legacy as one of the greatest ever to play the sport.