Murray and Nadal are still on the tour, but Sir Andrew exited after two courageous rounds at Melbourne Park, playing with a reconstructed hip, and Nadal was beaten in the second and revealed afterward that he would be out for at least eight weeks with a hip problem. Federer retired last year, saying that the surgeries on his knee had not got him back to where he could compete at the level he expects of himself.
His great rivals now are fading away into their post-tour careers. Roger Federer has an Africa-oriented foundation and a shoe brand, among other interests. Rafael Nadal has what is said to be the best tennis academy in the world located on his native Mallorca. I have never visited, so I cannot say for a fact that it is better than the Nick Bollettieri Academy in Bradenton, Florida, which is now called IMG Academy, and anyway these things are not easily quantifiable. Hillsdale or Harvard? Bronx Science or Dalton? Ask Diane Ravitch. And Andy Murray has his own activities, notably medical philanthropy; he was a recipient of the Arthur Ashe Humanitarian Award in 2022.
It sounds simple, but it is one of the aspects of this game that is most pleasing to watch. And with the great maestri of the sport, typically the Big Four of the past two decades, Djokovic is as good or better at this than any of his peers. Particularly compared to Roger Federer, who likes to close the point as quickly as possible, and does so with some of the most breathtaking, acrobatic, graceful shot-making in anyone’s memory, Djokovic is fundamentally a defensive player, who knows he will make the shot that will make his opponent make the last one — into the net or out of bounds.
Like his friend Andy Murray, he is a big-hearted gutsy, never-quit player, and, like Roger Federer, he is an analytical, thoughtful player. He uses his brain all the time. What all coaches tell their charges, he does perhaps more consistently than almost anyone else: “build the point” and “wait for the moment” to “release the trigger.” The idea is not only to “hit it where they ain’t,” but to put them in a position where you can do that.
Novak Djokovic learned both patience and intuition with good teachers and countless hours of practice and training, and it stayed with him. He had to listen for incoming bombardments when, as a child in Belgrade during the NATO air war against Serbia, he hit against pockmarked walls and uneven broken courts, learned when to finish an imaginary point quickly and dash for shelter or hang in a little longer to get into a better position.
This is an appreciated but perhaps downplayed virtue in tennis and other sports, perhaps because it deflects from the qualities of sheer physicality like speed and reflex and eye-arm that are on the surface more dramatic. More “explosive” in the typical tennis lexicon.
here is much to say about Novak Djokovic’s tennis game, and you cannot reduce his mastery of the sport to any single factor. But if the need existed, as in headline writing — see above — patience would be worth some consideration. The Australian Open winner and restored world No. 1 knows the value of patience.