Former World No. 1 Novak Djokovic’s strategy coach Craig O’Shannessy has warned his charge’s great rivals Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal about the threat the Serbian could pose to their dominance on the ATP tour after his comeback from a near six-month absence due to an elbow injury.
World No. 1 Rafael Nadal and 19-time Grand Slam champion Roger Federer have dictated action in Novak’s absence from the men’s circuit – winning all four Majors, with the Swiss icon claiming the Australian Open and Wimbledon and Nadal registering a historic victory at the French Open before capturing his third US Open crown in September. The pair will be Djokovic’s biggest challenge in the Australian Open next month. So can he outclass the two greats?
“Absolutely,” O’Shannessy asserted.
“Everyone has got their favorite patterns of what they want to do. Roger is one of the greatest servers in the history of the game but there are other elements. Roger has still got to return, there are still rallies that are going on, and he’s still going to miss first serves…
“There are still times where Roger is untouchable and that’s ok, but there are still times that all opponents will get a chance to get into the service games and that’s where you want to know what part of the court is best to attack and why and what to expect will be coming back.
“It’s the same as when I was working with Dustin Brown against Nadal. Rafa has got parts of the court where he’s not nearly as comfortable.
“Dustin was able to take advantage of that and that’s why he won – 90% of that game plan had very little to do with Dustin and had to do with plugging in to what Rafa didn’t want to do and Dustin made a great job making that happen.”
Can anything prevent Djokovic from reestablishing himself at the top of the men’s rankings?
“No. There’s nothing,” he declared.
“I mean, Roger came back and won the Australian Open after a long layoff so anything is possible.
“Roger was 3-1 down in that final set and Rafa had some game points to really put him away and Roger hung around, and hung around but you can pinpoint some key moments where Rafa could really have put that match away.
“As a strategy coach, you never want to get ahead of yourself. You focus on one guy on the court, you focus on him, you try and make him play well and then you live to fight another day. Ultimately, that mentality is key at every single level of the sport.”
