2023-06-12 22:00:00
TICKET/TO THE NET – It’s done. Serbian tennis player Novak Djokovic has reached, at 36, the record for the most major tournaments ever won. Even though he was prevented from participating in two of them, in 2022, due to refusal of vaccination.
The tennis icon, who proved at the start of the year at the Australian Open that he was still just as strong after being expelled from the previous edition, becomes, with his victory on Sunday at Roland-Garros, the greatest tennis player of all time.
After a very mixed start to the season on clay, the attentive supporters of the former Yugoslavian, who will have noticed the appearance of a few gray hairs on the player’s head, were feverish. Only three tennis players in all of history have managed to win a major tournament so far after 35 years.
His main rival still in activity, Rafaël Nadal, who is less than a year apart from Djokovic, is increasingly handicapped by physical problems, to the point of having had to give up Roland-Garros. And the Serb, who has been complaining of pain in his elbow, his Achilles heel, since the start of the season, has not reached better than a quarter-final on clay…
The spanish bone
And then, Roland-Garros. The draw places Djokovic in the same half of the table as the young Spanish prodigy Carlos Alcaraz, the youngest world number one in history. Their previous and only confrontation, in Madrid last year, ended in victory for the Spaniard at home. At Roland-Garros, the Serb again risks falling on a bone, and what had to happen happened.
On June 9, last Friday, the semi-final is not only a duel at the top: it is a battle of generations. For Carlos Alcaraz, it is a question of confirming his victory in Madrid, and above all of winning a first Grand Slam victory against one of the sacred monsters of tennis. For Djokovic, to block the way to the rising generation, as he has done throughout the past ten years.
But Carlos Alcaraz’s journey has been so sparkling, with four tournaments won since the start of the year, and an easy journey at Roland-Garros to the semi-finals, that the forecasts are against Djokovic. The Spaniard plays absolutely spectacular tennis, alternating with dazzling runs, meteoric forehands, not without phlegm, with an apparent naivety and a smile that contrasts with the outbursts of anger frequent among tennis players.
Calculation error
The Serb fell on a bone. He will eat it. We excuse the feverishness of the very young Carlos Alcaraz, who lost the first set last Friday. He finds his tennis to pocket the second. But faced with Djokovic’s metronomic defense, he is probably asking a little too much of his body. Tension builds, and muscles give out. The last two sets are folded 6-1, 6-1 by the Serb.
We begin to imagine his white hair being reflected on the Roland-Garros trophy, after those of Nadal who had worn high the colors of his incipient baldness last year. Dad resists.
Novak Djokovic takes advantage of the two days of rest that await him to take his children for a walk in nature. A nature he worships. During an interview with the Telegraph in 2018, he revealed that he had felt guilty for several months for having undergone elbow surgery to reduce his pain. “I try to be as natural as possible, and I think our body repairs itself”, he added.
Novak Djokovic, of whom we recall that he of course stubbornly refused the vaccination stamped Covid-19. Last year, when asked by the BBC if he was ready to jeopardize his chances of becoming the most successful player, He answered without blinking: “When it comes to my body, my principles are more important than any title or anything else.”
Not flashy
The winning the Australian Open 2023 marked a comeback. On average, Djokovic has won this tournament almost two out of three times. Had the frustration linked to his eviction last year turned into a rage to win?
So many skeptical conjectures, blown away like soap bubbles after his victory against Carlos Alcaraz. Unlike the young prodigy, the Serb is not one of the most spectacular players. One word: solid. With Novak Djokovic, you play against two nets: the first over which you have to pass the ball, and the second, which constantly returns it to you, with relentless elasticity.
Net that turns into a sling at the slightest of your failures. Inevitably, his adversaries get their brushes tangled up. Not flashy tennis. Facing Djokovic, all the players seem to be playing badly, fickle apprentices.
It was fate that awaited the brilliant Caspeer Ruud, fourth in the world and now a three-time Grand Slam finalist, in the final match of the tournament this Sunday. With the key, the consecration of Novak Djokovic, the most successful player in history, 23 major titles against 22 for the pre-retired Rafaël Nadal.
Against a current
“What you lose in the moment, you will gain twice as much later. What you gain in the moment by resisting is more than you will ever lose.” These words, Novak Djokovic never said them. He gave them life. Right in his sneakers, he gave hope, a face, recognition to all those resistant to injunctions-injections. Without ostentation, he gave them dignity and courage.
Faced with the dominant thought of the dominant group, as a good soldier of his cause, Novak Djokovic is swimming against the tide. When the wind turns, it is already far ahead.
#Novak #Djokovic #FranceEvening