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.
Beaten in three sets, he was visibly crushed. But he was patient. Australian border authorities detained him for being un-COVID-vaccinated last year, locked him up in a quarantine hotel, and deported him, despite Tennis Australia having assured him that he could compete with a medical exception, which other players were granted. He was disgusted and aggrieved, but he could wait: and the wait paid off. He went through the tournament this year dropping only one set, showing, with his feet and his racquet, brain, and heart, that no one could play at his level.
Drucker points out that the surfaces, which traditionally are quite different from place to place, are now closer in feel and bounce than at any other time, which would be one reason Djokovic can win everywhere and in particular can still expect to make a Grand Slam — a goal he nearly reached in 2021, when Daniil Medvedev stopped him at Flushing Meadows.
Winners in accepting their trophies invariably thank their teams, as well as their opponents, the fans, the ball boys and girls, and sometimes their spouses and parents. The teams include nutritionists, perchance psychologists, strength trainers, and even coaches. When coaches and players part often, which seems to happen more on the women’s side than the men’s, you know something is not clicking, but you never know what, though you can guess. Federer and Nadal kept the same coach for most of their careers; Murray and Djokovic tried some variety to adjust for a given stage in their professional evolution or even a specific tournament.