By Cheryl Jones
In 1991 there was a lot going on for a young boy whose family skied very well. He could certainly ski well; it was part of his genetic makeup. But, at four, he decided that he liked tennis. And to his family’s surprise he was good. Not just, “Oh, how cute – a four year old playing tennis”, good, but extraordinary. When he was six, Jelena Gencic, a Yugoslav tennis player spotted him and told his parents that he was the greatest talent she had seen since Monica Seles. Gencic worked with him until he was twelve. She then suggested that he move to the Pilic Tennis Academy in Germany where he spent the next several years working on his game.
A diligent fellow at heart, he wasted no time. He became a professional when he was sixteen. Looking back at his ATP rankings shows what seems to be a meteoric rise in the rankings. July 7, 2003 he was at 767. By August of 2007 he was number three in the world. Since then his rankings have consistently been at the top of the heap. He was number one for four years during 2011, 2012, 2014, and 2015. His play remains amazingly consistent, despite hitting a few speed bumps along the way.
A few years ago, after a myriad of health problems that seemed like allergies, he consulted specialists that figured out it was gluten intolerance. He discontinued the wheat and whatever else that contains gluten from his on the go menu. A dramatic change occurred. No more allergic reactions. Even with a few stumbles recently that saw him change coaches, today he is Number 2, and like Avis, he always tries harder.
The first Monday of 2017 Roland Garros saw him defeat Marcel Granollers of Spain in a lengthy, two hour and 27 minute straight-sets match. It wasn’t really close on paper, but Granollers made the most of his time in the spotlight on Court Philippe Chatrier early in the afternoon. The 6-3, 6-4, 6-2 score belied the competitive efforts of the Spaniard who kept Djokovic on his now thirty year-old nimble toes.
Card players know that there is a “tell” when someone either has a good or a bad hand. Djokovic has always had what I think is a “tell”. He has a habit of bouncing the ball before he serves and the number and frequency of the bounces change with his impression of how he’s doing in a match. Normally there is a six or seven bounce prelude to his serve. His nervous serve has six or seven bounces, then a halt and six or seven more. The bounces usually add up to thirteen. Today’s match included just a few of the thirteen-bounce variety, but they were there.
After the match, he explained how it felt to step on the court after his win last year that gave him a coveted prize that went beyond the Coupe de Mousquitaires he garnered when he became the 2016 winner at Roland Garros. He said, “Well, different (from before) because obviously coming to this tournament for the first time as defending champion gave me, probably more than anything else, relief, you know because the anticipation and the pressure and expectations that I had also for myself, but all the other people around me in the last three, four, five years before 2016 Roland Garros trophy was really big.”
It was more than “extra” big because it completed his very own career Grand Slam. He already had taken home the prizes from the other slams – six from the Australian Open; three from Wimbledon and two from the US Open.
A win this year would put him in a very exclusive “club”. If he can manage to make it through the draw with Rafael Nadal, somehow out of the picture, he might be able to eke out a win and become the third man in history to win all of the slams – twice. He would join Rod Laver and Roy Emerson, who are the only men to have won each of the grand slams twice. That said, there’s another biggie that would go down in the history books. He would be able to do it in the Open Era. Even though Laver won some of his titles in that era, Emerson and he were in competition before the change.
There is a lot to be said for goals that increase one’s chances of leaving an indelible mark in the history books. He’s done a yeoman’s job of making everything fit together to give him an opportunity to achieve the objectives that he must have begun to strive for when he was twelve and living away from Belgrade and his family.
He recently announced that he had brought André Agassi on as his coach. After today’s performance, it seems like that plan is working very well. It’s another one of those only time will tell instances.
After his win today, he didn’t seek the spotlight for himself alone. He stepped to the center of the court and asked the ball kids to join him in an impromptu dip and wave to the crowd. He’s a diplomat in shorts, carrying a tennis racquet. Tennis needs him. He is a wonderful ambassador to the world in general; but for tennis, he is a gem from Belgrade that sparkles more than a diamond, and with that, reflects all that’s good in the game.
