By Cheryl Jones
Novak Djokovic began playing tennis when he was very young. (He was four years old, to be exact.) Even though his family was ensconced in the world of professional skiing, he liked to play tennis, though his father would have liked for him to become a skier or a football (soccer) pro.
Former Yugoslavian professional tennis player, Jelena Gencic saw him hitting balls and said that he was the best young player she had seen since Monica Seles. Looking back, no one could ever argue with that evaluation. He has won 12 Grand Slam singles titles; 30 Masters 1000 series titles, and that is only a small part of a list that can go on and then on again. This is a young man who grew up crouched with his family in a basement in Serbia, waiting out the war that left a permanent mark on the young man. Now, he is an old pro of 31. He’s been recuperating from some nagging injuries for what seems a lengthy period of time. But, it wasn’t always that way.
In 2016 he, not Rafael Nadal, took a bite out of the Roland Garros grand prize, the Coupe des Mousquetaires. And there was more. An add-on came with that win. He became the eighth player in history to achieve the Career Grand Slam, and concurrent with that, he held all four major titles at once. That hadn’t been done since 1969 when Rod Laver claimed them all.
Djokovic is hailed as one of the greatest tennis players ever by many, and that is echoed in his rankings that have zoomed to number one and back on more than one occasion. He is the recipient of many honors and it would be a treat to see him clown around with his spot-on impressions of many of his fellow tennis pros.
Lately, he has been anything but a “Djoker”, a long ago nickname. There is always a hint of that persona rumbling around somewhere in his core, but it’s been on sick leave of late. His first round match at the French Open was against Rogerio Dutra Silva, a Qualifier who is ranked 134. In all his years in competition, Djokovic has never lost to a qualifier at a major. He has won all fifteen of those matches, including five in Paris. He has never lost to a player ranked as low as Dutra Silva and true to form he didn’t today. It was pretty smooth sailing this afternoon as he swooped to a 6-3, 6-4, 6-4 victory and moved on to the next round.
After the match, he said, “It’s been a long twelve months behind me, but I’m starting to play better. I feel like, in the past couple of weeks, not thinking about the elbow, playing pain-free, which is the most important thing at the moment.” When asked about his confidence, he acknowledged that was definitely a part of the process.
When he was much younger, the Serbian seemed to have problems with confidence. It seems that he would simply check out of reality. It was visible in his carriage. His shoulders would sag and his reactions would lag. All that seemed to dissipate when he found that he had allergies to wheat and wheat products. His diet changed and so did his tennis demeanor. Then, the injury happened and it was confounded by expectations and starts and stops that led to much frustration and a much more lengthy recuperation than he was prepared for.
Having watched Djokovic since he played in the juniors, he has always had a few tics that went along with his game. (Not Nadal-like tics, but definitely tics.) Before his serve, he tends to bounce the ball six times. If he is nervous, that changes to six in quick succession then a pause and seven more bounces. Today, those tics seemed to have disappeared with his pain in the elbow. He didn’t say, “I’m b-a-c-k…” He didn’t have to.
Several players were injured before Roland Garros began and had to pull out of the line-up. Djokovic was asked if he thought it was the length of the season that was to blame. He pointed out that indeed it was a very long season that begins in January and wasn’t complete until the end of November. He added, “You know, we have a beautiful sport that gives us a lot and we have to be grateful in the end of the day.”
He must feel grateful indeed. This beautiful sport has rewarded his excellent play and conscientiousness quite amply. He has taken home well over a hundred million dollars, and his latest tennis hiree has been his former coach Marian Vajda.
Djokovic gave homage to a fellow player who has been plagued with injury and who has fought his way back to be inside the top ten. Juan Martin Del Potro won the US Open just before his twenty-first birthday. Del Potro will be twenty-nine soon and he has had a roller coaster ride up and down the rankings. He said, “I’m not the first one in the history of this game to face these kind of circumstances with big injuries. Del Potro comes to mind. He’s someone that has faced even worse… And now he’s back to top 10, top 5 of the world. That’s impressive. Those kind of stories inspire you and hopefully I can do the same.” And he can.
Smooth sailing is on the horizon. He’ll only have to bounce that service ball six times. To heck with the extra seven!
