Novak Djokovic has won his 23rd Grand Slam singles title in Paris, and if no one challenges him soon, his road to even greater success will be a cakewalk Credit: Getty Images/Mustafa Yalcin
If the French Open has taught me anything, it's that the tennis world is in denial about the extent of its problem with Novak Djokovic.
People really thought he would lose! Carlos Alcaraz! The guy who made it to the US Open (when Djokovic was out for visa reasons) but never made it past the quarter-finals at Roland Garros!
And it was not only the players and bookmakers. Dozens of analysts, coaches and former legends have claimed that Alcaraz will make it through Friday's semi-finals thanks to his creativity and enthusiasm. They expressed their opinion with such unanimity that I began to wonder what I was missing.
But then I returned to the most frightening page on the Internet. The one you see when you go to the Tennis Abstract website and ask for Djokovic's major defeat list.
Djokovic pushes men's singles Grand Slam trophy record to 23. Photo: Reuters
The message was clear. Barring an illness, an accident, or Rafael Nadal, Djokovic is untouchable.
To expand a bit, his resume shows four helmet losses as he solved an elbow problem that plagued him from roughly 2017 to 2019.
Two of them were inflicted by Nadal at Roland Garros: the only set of circumstances that the mature Djokovic has ever tried to overcome.
Another one came like a bolt from the blue when he hit the ball in the throat of a woman on the line.
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And the last case is a rare, perhaps unique case when the real Djokovic did not show up for a significant match. It was the 2021 US Open final where stress and exhaustion left him sobbing in the towel against Daniil Medvedev.
Does it matter if Djokovic is good enough to win major titles blindfolded and brandishing a frying pan? ? Well, it matters a little. He has played two Grand Slams this year and lost a total of three sets. Which doesn't make for an exciting drama.
The first of these vices happened to Enzo Cuco (yes, I didn't hear anything about him either) in Melbourne; second against Karen Khachanov in Paris. These were spectacular matches, on the surface level, but no one doubted that Djokovic would break out in the end.
The only real unpredictability in his entire Grand Slam season came on Friday afternoon, in the early stages. that highly anticipated semi-final against Alcaraz. The stadium was excited for two hours. The air hissed with heat and excitement.
And then disaster. Just as the match seemed to be approaching a crescendo, Alcaraz was immobilized by a calf cramp. Personally, I don't think he would have won anyway. The only way he stayed in a relationship with Djokovic was by doing little miracles, point by point attrition.
Let's take another look at this list of players who beat Djokovic. Go back a little to those wild years when he was recovering his elbow and changing coaches, and you will find players like Stan Wawrinka, Dominic Thiem and Thomas Berdych — all players who are now either retired or turned into shadows of themselves.
With Nadal recovering his hip and missing the remainder of the season, there is not a single person with the knowledge and physical ability to beat Djokovic in a best-of-five sets.
How do you study? Djokovic has developed his skills through repeated studies in high school. He continued to face Nadal, Roger Federer and Andy Murray, tournament after tournament, throughout the halcyon years of the Big Four in the late 2000s and early 2010s.
Alcaraz can beat his contemporaries all he wants, but playing Djokovic is different, and he admitted it after Friday's semi-final. “I have never felt such tension as in that match,” admitted Alcaraz. “If someone says that he gets to the court without nerves, playing against Novak, he is lying. I hope that the next time I meet Novak, I will be different, but the nerves will remain the same.”
How can Alcaraz fill the gap in knowledge? Perhaps he and his coach — former world number one Juan Carlos Ferrero — will be able to extract enough information from these two hours on Philippe Chatrier's court. But experience is valuable, and it is suspected that they will need a couple more attempts before they are truly ready.
By this time, Djokovic will have completed the tournament tournament and will begin to wonder if he can make it to 30 majors. In all likelihood, now that he is in 23rd place, he will play with even more freedom and fluency and no longer have to worry about not being able to make it to the top of the leaderboard.
If Alcaraz doesn't mature faster than I expect, the only thing that can stop Djokovic is a loss of motivation or injury to his apparently ageless body.
So if you want an image of the future tennis, imagine Djokovic's Asics running back and forth on any surface for months.
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