Soooo, What Happened To Novak Djokovic?

it was I guess inevitable for for him to win today against him I just um I was inferior on the court that's it this is the end for Novak jokovic he might never win another slam or major title again many tennis fans are leaning towards this line of thought following Novak's Wimbledon final run and his mysterious 2024 season so far as we go through jovic's Wimbledon this year the talks about his easy draws and some of the Tactical analysis I'll be sharing my thoughts and hot tap on what went wrong and also my predictions for the Serbian moving forward Novac traveling to Wimbledon not fully sure of his participation status was nerve-wracking for many of us and when we finally knew that he was going to play the question on everyone's mind was how far can he go with a screwed up knee needing rehab coupled with his compromised movement already there was only going to be one way to survive the onslaught that was about to come from the next gen Novak needed to dominate on his serve more than ever to stand a chance just like he did last year in the Australian Open when he was all taped up Novak faced Czech qualifier and world number 123 vit civa in the first round and after a rather tentative start to the game jokovic quickly took control showing his Superior attacking brand of tennis with some clinical serving and voling before we knew it Nole already had dished out a bread stick to the check but capriva wasn't willing to let his second main draw Grand Slam match slip away without a fight so he upped the ante and tried to chase every Ball but at the end of the day jokovic was levels above him and got the job done in less than two hours The Joker fired down three consecutive Aces to finish the match in style game set Movic a straight sets win for the Serb to keep the dream of title number eight at the all England Club alive I was particularly impressed with the fact that despite the discomfort he must have been feeling I thought Novak was moving pretty well even sliding a couple times on grass that being said he wasn't really pushed Nole won 90% of his first serves and didn't even face a single break point and don't even get me started on his net approach points won 17 out of 21 well someone out there might have been thinking all of this doesn't matter because the Joker played someone outside the top 100 maybe a bigger challenge was going to come in the second round a bigger Challenge from someone who was uh barely inside the top 300 British Wild Card Jacob Fernley was ready for his second round challenge against the goat Fernley was ranked 645th in the world at the beginning of the year but he then went on an insane match winning streak to win the Nottingham Challenger the conditions were a lot more windy this time and Fernley was serving extremely well and he put up a performance he should definitely be proud of jokovic kept up with with his serve quality winning every single point on his first serve in the first set before going on to break Fernley in his only breakpoint opportunity despite the new kid on the Block keeping up with Novak with shots like this that single break was enough for Nole to take the first set 6-3 the second set almost played out in a similar fashion with jokovic converting yet again on the only breakpoint opportunity he had but the real drama came in the third set with the crowd more involved and certainly cheering for Fernley the youngster cranked up the engine and broke Novak right at the death to steal the third set fley continued to find success at the net and threatened to force the match to a decider and with both players putting on a show in the fourth it couldn't have been more satisfying that was until Fernley sadly double faulted on his own serve at 5 all to give jokovic the key break and that was it to his credit jokovic was gracious afterwards despite his issues with the crowd in the match during the match he had shushed the crowd at some point before slamming the Umpire for not kicking out a disruptive fan in the fourth set but okay I get it I mean novc is still probably the luckiest man on the planet with the draws he was getting but still to come through unscathed coming off of the knee injury with a really short posttop rehab in a tournament that he maybe wasn't even going to play no less was super impressive to me but next up was a stronger test against a certain Aussie this was Novak's third meeting against papin and although the Serbian had won their previous two encounters we knew that poyin was always going to be a stiff test with his big serving and hitting with the first set level at three all jokovic failed to put away a routine volley which allowed the Aussie to hit him with this passing shot right here Alexi then held his own to seize the first set but a pause to close the roof allowed jokovic to regroup and activate the reset button in the second he became more dominant especially behind his first serve poyin didn't have much return success against Nole so he didn't have that many chances to break Novak who was winning 90% of the points off his first serve thanks to some clinical spot serving but what was even more obvious was papy rin's lack of effectiveness at the net the third set came and Novak imposed himself more by putting in his best performance up until that point he just wasn't missing anything 100% of first serves won N9 for n on points coming to the net 15 winners and only two unforced errors watching the match I felt like Novak's superiority wasn't even reflected in the score line that's not to say that papin was playing bad but rather he was just outplayed by a superior Novak especially on those backhand to backhand exchanges knowing that he had his work cut out for him poyin raised his level in the fourth set and was ripping those four hands Novak though held his own and looked more comfortable hitting shots on the run before getting the job done in a tie break as the clock ticked just over 3 hours it was overall a massive step up for Nole compared to his second round encounter but the man awaiting him in the fourth round wasn't looking to take any prisoners hogar Runa season so far has been underwhelming by his standards he's since fallen out of the top 10 and changed coaches in a bid to turn his fortunes around Runa was just coming off the back of a five- Setter against Quenton Alis in the third round and was looking to find his best tennis but we expected a serious test from Runa going by history instead what we got was a straight sets win for Novak now how did that happen in each of his matches prior to the fourth round nov had hit double figures for Aces and was also cashing in on points at the net against Runa he didn't need all that many aces because in addition to his offensive power Novak was dialed in on the return stifling Runa to a measley 11% win percentage on The Dan second serves in the first set jokovic won the first 12 points to take early control in the first and Runa never really looked to get back in it the second set was closer with jokovic not being able to capitalize on numerous breakpoint chances he created both players also made more unforced errors than they would have liked but it was Novak who managed to extend his lead to two sets after Runa sent this ball long game and second at this point the crowd had already gotten wed Rowdy or as Rowdy as the Brits can get and were frequently shouting Runa between points however jokovic kept his foot down at the start of the third to break again before taking care of business on his first match point never want to shy away from addressing the crowd when he feels like he was disrespected Novak followed his win with a fiery on cord interview and to all those people that uh have chosen to disrespect the play player in this case me have a good night I played in much more hostile environment trust me you guys you guys can't touch me but what were your thoughts on the interview I kept seeing words like Petty and insecure and really it got me wondering why so many fans thought jokovic was just acting up because they weren't cheering for him many fans might like or favor other members of the big three more than jokovic but it's just surprising to me how much hate he still gets considering where he is in his career at this point some have even gone as far as saying stuff like Novak didn't even have surgery or he exagger ated his injury honestly it's beyond me so I'll leave that up to you guys why do you think jokovic gets so much hate he clearly has a ton of fans but the haters are sometimes just unbelievable and trust me it got even worse when the Serbian got a walkover against Alex dor in the quarterfinal I'm devastated but I had to pull out um due to uh hip injury deor injured his hip during his round of 16 Clash against Archer feasts which only led to more comments that Novak was getting a cake kwalk at Wimbledon the comments saying that Novak had the easiest draw Ever resurface with some fans taking it a step further to speculate that draws were always rigged to favor Novak but honestly apart from the first two rounds where you could either face a relatively easy matchup like a random qualifier or a strong player who just missed out on being seated I'm not very keen on saying draws are too easy because the level of competition is so strong on the ATP Tour you actually have to put in the work and play good tennis to beat these players no matter what otherwise you might suddenly find yourself at risk of an upset no one is going to hand it over to you on a platter personally I feel like the subject of luck is more relevant when we're talking about the rest of the top eight seeds after the first and second seeds are put at opposite halves in a draw the rest of the top seeds are literally pulled out of a hat which means that they could appear in either half of the draw for example if Medvedev had landed on Novak's side of the draw then they could have faced off in the semis but instead we saw medy cner and alarz all in one half and quite frankly those were his only real threats and with Sasha losing to Taylor Fritz and the other top players falling jokovic suddenly had a clear path to the final but overall I find it quite interesting to see that some fans believe that jovic's majors are the result of easy draws especially considering the fact that he is the record for most top 10 and top five victories he's won a record 61 titles by defeating multiple top 10 players and a record 24 titles by defeating multiple top five players on Route not even Federer or Nadal have come anywhere close jokovic has had 69 top 10 wins at Grand Slams while Federer had 64 and Nadal had 55 so while Novak had it relatively easy at Wimbledon this year it shouldn't overshadow the fact that jokovic has been beating top opponents more than anyone else to win titles Alex D Manor pulling out of the tournament meant two things depending on which lens you decide to look at it through while the walkover gives jokovic that extra day of rest and helps him recover for the semis it's also possible that it affects his rhythm I remember Nick curios talking about how he would have loved to face Nadal in the semis of Wimbledon back in 2022 to help his rhythm for the final even if he would have been at risk of losing that match honestly it's just how tennis Works dior's withdrawal meant jokovic made his 13th Wimbledon semi-final equaling Roger Federer's open ERA record and the reward for that a matchup against a familiar foe I've always enjoyed the jokovic MTI matchup and while I expected Novak to win the way that he did it was simply outrageous right off the bat musti made the match physical in an attempt to test jovic's limits as we've come to expect from him musti was defending from a very deep return position so Novak had to come forward in a bid to shorten the points I also thought that Novak's backhand was the best I had seen all tournament with the number of points he was dictating off that Wing I mean take a look at this jokovic took the first set 6'4 despite being initially broken when serving for the set but I can't help but remember the 11th game in the second set five all love 30 down jokovic fired down four aces to hold reminding everyone of the quality he possesses jokovic was also responding well to musetti's slice by being patient on the return before going on to take the second set and then the third after the match MTI said he had never never faced a jokovic like the one he saw that day I never face a no like this I think it just tells you how good Novak is against all the other top players now into his 10th Wimbledon final jokovic created yet another piece of History by becoming the only player in history to reach 10 finals at three different Grand Slams facing alcaraz in a rematch of last year's final you could say there was a lot at stake for both players these were their tournament stats so far and their head-to-head and here was the path that alcaras had taken to the final oh and by the way for the first time since 2015 The Wimbledon men's singles final would be a rematch of the previous year's final for Novak Revenge was on the menu a 25th grand slam the chance to equal Roger Federer's record of eight Wimbledon titles a chance to turn his season around the stakes were high personally thinking about a winner was a dilemma for me my heart was saying jokovic and my head was saying alcaraz if you know what I mean and it was literally LLY the same thing for many of the top analysts out there these were the analyst picks ahead of the final and it was dead even among them coming into the final jokovic had the edge on paper in terms of shot quality like we can see here with all that shot quality in the bag defending was literally not an option for Novak because we're talking about being up against someone who has the ability to hit you off the court there was only one way out the serve plus one precise spot serving to push alcaraz out of position and finish off with a forehand or backand volley unfortunately for jokovic alcarez got the memo and the Spaniard wasn't going to let that happen how did he counter that chipped returns didn't give Nole enough Pace to work with and his positional Advantage was also neutralized such returns Drew Novak to the net for him to be able to hit a second shot for a player as fast as alcaraz your volley needs to be short and precise but Novak was having an off day on the volley and this happened it was rinse and repeat throughout that long first game of the match and alcaraz was coming out on top it was so shocking to see Nole keep missing volleys or going very deep into the court instead of going short because the last thing you want to do is give caritos more time to get to those shots that was exactly what Sasha was guilty of particularly in the last set against alcaraz in the French Open final so what was happening was it the nerves jokovic is the master of nerves but at this point it became easy for me to conclude that the volum execution problems for Novak might have come down to nerves jokovic was already a disastrous two for 10 on net points after the first four games of the first set it was one of those very rare times I had seen jokovic look defeated and completely psyched out as alcaraz took the first set 62 another thing I noticed was that jokovic seemed a little unsure of his movement on defense and he ended up doubling up on Down the Line shots and ser in volleys which he continued to miss okay let's forget about the first set it was horrible for Novak so obviously he's going to change tactics or give himself some kind of pep talk right well you would think but no the second set started off in the exact same way as the first set alcaraz kept up with the chipped returns forcing Nole to take that second shot on a ball without much Pace the result yet another error at the net to get broken in the very first game again alcarez had now won eight of the first 10 games at this point and it was becoming painful to watch for Novak fans oh I should also mention that alcarez was serving lights out at above 135 mph which isn't something we're used to seeing as a result he found it easy to hold himself while he continued to make life difficult for Nole on the serve Novak's body language just wasn't good as alcarez continued to hit him with chipped returns and passing shots before we could blink Novak was already down two sets to love in the latest edition of the Cross generational battle knowing that alcaraz's forehand is a little prone to missing the target if you're able to force the action and Rush him wide one would have expected Novak to do just that in the third set but that just wasn't possible most of the time because alcaraz brought his best self to play I mean look at this sorry I'm not done yet here's another one by now alcarez was already using the drop shot to great effect ragd dolling Novak on a couple of occasions with the third set level at four all alcarez went in for the kill with the exact same play punishing Novak as he ventured forward for the first time in the match we saw alcarez become human as he attempted to close out the match but after squandering three match points the Spaniard wasted No Time closing out Novak in the tie break 62 62 76 your final score Nole was 27 for 53 at the net and got passed for clean winners 10 good times not just that he won 84% of points on his first serves against the best returner in the game and you'd imagine that if there's any part of alcaraz's game that's considered weak it is his serve and yet here he was cashing in on those serves you see many of those serves were hard to the body which you need great footwork to get around possibly due to his knee Nole found it really difficult to deal with those body serves as he normally would jokovic did seem to have the right strategy but it was alarz who adapted and in the end it almost seemed like a mismatch power off both Wings net play Drop shots with all these options alcaraz was sometimes guilty of a relative lack of clarity on how to play and concentration throughout the match seemed to be a problem at times but that wasn't the case for him on Sunday an A+ performance from alcaraz and let's say maybe a C plus for jokovic who had his compromised movement exposed so what does this loss mean for Nole moving forward it's a Changing of the Guard alcaraz is only the fifth player in history to beat Novak in straight sets in a grand slam final after Federer Nadal Murray and meddev in the span of a year alcaras has gone from being the underdog to the favorite to win a Wimbledon final against jokovic that to me speaks volumes this is also the first year since 2003 that the big three will not win at least two grand slam titles at this point there's no doubt that The Changing of the Guard and Tennis has already begun but that doesn't mean that Novak is going to ride off into the sunset because he's still up at the top and I'll tell you why on the possibility of a 25th slam jokovic is still very capable of winning slams from what we've seen and although he said himself that he doesn't feel like he's at the level of alcaraz and cner it's just hard to see him losing to many other players maybe meddev let's throw in Sasha in three sets but beyond that it's still hard for me to see losing consistently to other top players this essentially means that jokovic is still a top Contender for slams at least for now but the question now is can he get back to the level where he's beating CER and alcaraz it wasn't that long ago but maybe it's time to accept that alcaraz and CER might be the favorites for slams at this point one thing about aging in tennis and Sports in general is that it's not a stepwise process as you get older the Fallen performance may be steeper than you would imagine recovery times become longer and more difficult and you might just be one injury away from retirement novc has had a rather steep decline from 2023 to 2024 and it's been all sorts of problems a short off season stomach bugs flying water bottles meniscus tears questions about his motivation it just keeps on coming at 37 years old there's already an air of acceptance among some Novak fans that he just doesn't have many years left at the top let's take a look at the remainder of the season for the first time in 19 yes 19 years Novak will be entering the month of August without winning a single title he doesn't even have any top 10 wins this season it's crazy because only a year ago Nole was winning literally everything but on the bright side this Wimbledon final run will no doubt restore some confidence for the remainder of the Year also Nole still probably likes his chances against the nextg guys on hardcourts particularly indors oh and I should also mention that Nole is back in the race to the ATP finals that's definitely something he'll be happy about the truth is that a gold medal at the Olympics would completely erase all of the bad memories for nox 2024 season because of his motivation and recent performances I'd still say he's a strong Contender for the title too however alcarez seems to be the obvious number one player my guess is that Nole will make time to practice for the Olympics and then throw everything that he has at the tournament but let me ask you guys what do you think about no's chances for Olympic gold at this point and lastly his legacy sometimes as fans we tend to idolize are favorite athletes and lose objectivity as a jokovic fan if you asked me what happened in the final my response would be nothing he just got completely outplayed and dominated but one thing you can't take away from Novak are his titles records and achievements he's Rewritten history and holds most of the important records in tennis if he never gets to beat alcaraz or CER again honestly that's okay but I'm eager to hear your thoughts about jovic's Wimbledon his chances for the Olympics and for the remainder of the season not to mention the Dynamics of his rivalries with CER and alcaraz you guys are some of the most knowledgeable fans out there and I always appreciate learning a thing or two from you in the comments and speaking of Carlos and sinner I also made Wimbledon deep Dives about them so if you haven't checked them out already what are you waiting for until next time keep swinging