Novak Djokovic has found the strength to revive a season that risked being a failure. The Serbian had to miss the Australian Open and the US Open due to his choice not to get vaccinated against the Coronavirus, as well as having suffered serious image damage.
For the same reason, the former world number 1 also withdrew from all the American Masters 1000. The 35-year-old from Belgrade needed time to find the right balance, so much so that he failed to go beyond the quarterfinals at Roland Garros.
The best version of Nole was reviewed at Wimbledon, where he forfeited his fourth consecutive title. In addition to equaling his idol Pete Sampras with seven hits at Church Road, the ‘Djoker’ moved just one length clear of Rafael Nadal in the all-time Grand Slam rankings.
Goran Ivanisevic’s protégé will attempt the engagement already at the 2023 Australian Open, having been authorized by the local government to go ‘Down Under’ Speaking to Eurosport microphones, Mats Wilander spent some nice words for Djokovic.
Wilander on Nole Djokovic
“There is more showmanship in professional tennis now, and the showmanship of emotions is what attracts people to their screens in general. So I like that side. Novak Djokovic has to deal with the gaze of millions of people all the time, except during a game when it’s just him and another person.
He exchanges with this person, and this exchange includes his emotions, his thoughts and his physical state. So I don’t take anything special from it, except that the guy is an absolute physical beast, and emotionally he’s also an animal on a tennis court.
It’s fantastic!“, underlined the former world number 1, consultant for Eurosport. Novak Djokovic has a great chance of being the most decorated player in the history of tennis. “When people ask the question, ‘Is Novak (Djokovic) going to end up as the overall leader in tennis history, I think he will for a period of time after they are all retired, but I’m not convinced at all that there is nobody out there that’s gonna ever break whatever’s Novak’s final number is and the reason I feel that is precisely what we just said that is we got three of them at the same time and they have basically the identical number of titles,” he said.
“We may never see this again with three guys doing what they’re doing. If one guy comes along in an era, that person may not be born yet, maybe it’s Carlos Alcaraz.”
