Novak Djokovic’s perfectionist beauty makes its Wimbledon return
Novak Djokovic, tennis’ great modern player, is back from a long-term injury and rolling through the early rounds at Wimbledon.
Novak Djokovic, after months of injury uncertainty and missed majors, gradually returned to normal Novak form during the spring clay court season, culminating in a nutty fourth-set tiebreaker loss in the French Open quarterfinals to upstart Marco Cecchinato.
He had been up and down in that time, adjusting to a new serve motion and regaining the baseline movement that was lost in his various 2017 absences.
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Even as he won the Queen’s Club Championships before Wimbledon, he didn’t quite look himself. Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal seem unwilling to loosen their grasp on men’s tennis, a grasp initiated by the long-term absences of Djokovic, Stan Wawrinka and Andy Murray.
Now, Djokovic has returned as one of the best in the world, coincidentally at the same place where those elbow and shoulder injuries knocked him out long-term.
He retired at Wimbledon last year in the quarterfinals and missed the rest of 2017, opening the easiest path to a major in recent memory for Nadal at the U.S. Open.
The Djoker appears back for good, no injury caveats to be had.
He made quick work of one-time underdog favorite and the conveniently named Tennys Sandgren in the first round in London and did the same on Thursday to poor Horacio Zeballo, who looked helpless amid a sea of ruthless power and consistency.
Few players embody the modern tennis game better than the Serbian, with his all-around skill set, willingness to sit at the baseline and whack groundstrokes and immense serve power, a power that reveals itself in punishing approach shots rather than Pete Sampras-type serve-and-volley plays.
His game (like Murray’s, Alexander Zverev’s and others) is power and precision. It doesn’t carry a conspicuous type to it, as opposed to Nadal’s lefty topspin and clay-oriented style or Federer’s precise movements and glorious athleticism.
(Because of the modern Djokovic-perfected trends, tennis is moving away from those beautiful style contrasts, making some fans less than optimistic about the direction of the game.)
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But Djokovic’s style carries a certain perfectionist beauty. You watch it and think, “How can anyone ever beat this guy?”
You’re going to lose most neutral groundstroke rallies. Be aggressive, and he fetches all of your power shots, somehow depositing them all right back to your baseline. Sit back and defend, and he punishes you. Rely on winning your service games? He’s one of the best returners ever.
Even his net game is above-average. There’s no formula to beat Novak Djokovic. That doesn’t mean it can’t done (just ask Nick Kyrgios), but if I were his third-round Wimbledon opponent, I’d have a difficult time devising a game-plan.
Zeballo certainly had no answer.
He’s a clay-courter at heart, so he was always going to have a difficult time on the faster grass surface, but he ran into a determined and fully healthy Djokovic in that second-round match, and unless you’re a top-tier player, you pretty much always will have a difficult time challenging that.
The Argentine wilted beneath the power of points like these:
That was a weak return, ripe for a Djokovic winner, but Novak’s most impressive quality is on display: he’s amazingly ruthless and efficient when he has even the smallest edge in a point.
Tennis points are permanently measured in three states from the perspective of a player — offensive, defensive and neutral. Players’ abilities in all three states, plus the varying extremes and circumstances in each, determine their overall abilities.
Djokovic is amazing in all three, but especially so in that first one. He wears you down, planting that constant seed in your head that you can’t give him any opportunities to punish you. Zeballo’s mental state seemed tentative and anxious as a result.
Next: No. 1 rating volley between Federer, Nadal
Good to have you back, Novak.