What if the failure of a lifetime was bad for good for Djokovic?

There will undoubtedly be no other such occasion. So close to conquering the Grand Slam, a feat that no one has achieved since Rod Laver in 1969, and at the same time so far given the scale of his defeat in the final against Daniil Medvedev (6-4, 6-4, 6-4). This is the whole paradox embodied by Novak Djokovic last Sunday on the Arthur-Ashe court, his eyes clouded with tears, the finalist plateau in his hands. In a little over two hours, he will have seen his dream slip from him in a game that he has never been able to master, he who had nevertheless embodied almost perfect control during the 27 previous stages of his extraordinary adventure which took him to the led from Melbourne to New York in 2021.

Control of his opponents, his game, the distance of the five sets and the aura of invincibility attached to him. And yet, Djokovic could not finally resist the weight of the challenge. Everything was shattered. A question now arises: how to recover? For the common people, the problem is not far from being insoluble because mentally, the blow is too hard. But if he finally gave in on Sunday, the world number 1 nonetheless remains an extraordinary champion. And like the rare sportsmen of his dimension, the art of the rebound to spin the tennis metaphor has no secrets for him.

Despite his tears and his immense disappointment, the world number 1 did not say anything else at a press conference. “Of course, I stumbled on the last step, but I have to be proud of all that we have accomplished this year with my team. And in tennis, you learn very quickly to turn the page. Very soon there will be other challenges, other things that will come. I learned to overcome this kind of hard defeats in the Grand Slam final (11 of 31 now, Editor’s note). The ones that hurt the most. I will try to learn from it to be stronger and continue. I still love the sport, and I feel great on the court. As long as I have the motivation and this gift, I will stay on track.”

It had taken him almost two seasons to recover. If he had achieved the calendar Grand Slam on Sunday, he could almost have stopped his career on this extraordinary feat. He probably wouldn’t have done it (we’ll never know), but getting back into action in 2022 wouldn’t have been so obvious. Because the world number 1 works above all by setting new goals. However, above the Grand Slam, there is nothing, absolutely nothing. To have missed it so little is as heartbreaking as it is infuriating. The question now is to know what will win: the unspeakable disappointment or the rage to win of the injured animal?

The Grand Slam might have satiated him, the injured animal will be hungry

On the subject, Dominic Thiem, currently away from the courts because of a wrist injury, has his own idea. “He still has this goal of winning a 21st Grand Slam for being the only one to have done so. I expect him to be stronger than ever in 2022. Ever since he won Roland, everyone was only talking about the potential Golden Grand Slam and then the Grand Slam period. So it’s possible that will make him even stronger next year, when he gets rid of all this pressure and all the talk about it.“, he estimated.

To rub shoulders with him for a long time on the circuit, the Austrian knows his illustrated Djokovic inside out. It is often in adversity that the world number 1 releases his best tennis. After knockouts sometimes absolute violence, as in the final of Roland-Garros 2020 against Rafael Nadal (defeat 6-0, 6-2, 7-5, Editor’s note), he has often recovered in a spectacular way, his season 2021 has proven it in the most beautiful way.

The former Swedish champion Mats Wilander, himself author of a small slam in 1988, also shares Thiem’s ​​opinion. “I’m sure Novak isn’t going to want to stop there. I can imagine him taking a few weeks off to recharge his batteries, then training like an animal for four months to pounce on the Australian Open. It will be a new beginning for him“, he considered in his column to L’Equipe.

Extend his career to put Federer and Nadal permanently in the retros

In Melbourne, Djokovic will also be able to set himself a double objective which will have a certain allure: to overtake his rivals Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer in the number of Majors, while winning his “decima” at the Antipodes. We have seen worse as a source of motivation. “It’s always good, whatever the level you have, to have a goal to achieve. He must be very frustrated, because it was time to make the Grand Slam, and he must be disappointed that he missed this meeting. But it finally gets him back to work“, abounds Camille Pin.

“On this small detail, a bit like Serena in 2015, who was however also the mentally dominant player, he did not succeed. He missed it, which perhaps made him more human. He’s going to have to work on things, and that’s what drives you as an athlete. When you feel that you can progress on something and that there is a challenge, something that you stumble on, the motivation comes from there“, adds our consultant.

This huge blow could therefore push Djokovic to put a part back in the juke box, so to speak. To extend his career with an always insatiable hunger for records. Exploding the counters in Grand Slam remains, of course, within his reach. His setback last Sunday should not make us forget, by gaining a little height, that Djokovic achieved, at 34, the greatest season of his career in the Majors (he had never found himself in this position before despite two other small Slams in 2011 and 2015). Physically, he does not seem to show any decline, unlike his two “Big 3” acolytes.

Zverev, Medvedev, Tsitsipas: a triple threat as exciting as it is dangerous

Another source of motivation for him will be found in the new threat posed by the young generation now installed. Djokovic takes great pleasure in being the defender of the citadel of the “old” extraterrestrials of world tennis. “In the transition from generation Federer-Nadal to ex-Next Gen, Djokovic is fighting because he can still do it. He’s a bit like the guy young people want to destroy, but he resists so it’s great“, notes Camille Pin who salivates in advance of the prospect offered by the 2022 season.

But this observation has a size limit: by largely beating the world number 1, Daniil Medvedev found a breach in the citadel precisely. And he could well exploit it in the future, just like his colleagues Alexander Zverev and Stefanos Tsitsipas, while waiting for the youngest with long teeth Jannik Sinner, Félix Auger-Aliassime, Carlos Alcaraz and other Lorenzo Musetti. On the contrary, if he had made the Grand Slam while keeping the interior fire, Djokovic would still benefit from this aura of invincibility in the five-set format.

The Serb still impresses, but he may not be so scary anymore. “For the Grand Slam, it now seems very difficult to reproduce, because the more the years go by, the more it will be jostled by the Medvedevs, Zverev who begin to understand how to play it. Djokovic was faced with his own dilemma, but there were the others as well. This is clearly an indicator that at key moments it can be fragile, as the level of competition rises. They have the knife between their teeth. And if Djokovic cracked in the final, Zverev had shown that it was playable in the half by pushing him to 5th. They are starting to get really experienced and send. They are gaining ground“, notes our consultant.

The public, an unexpected ally for the end of his career?

In this new challenge to him, however, Djokovic may have found an unexpected ally of circumstance. This US Open, and more particularly this final, will have staged what looks very much like a first for the Serb (at least when he is not playing at home): the almost unanimous support of the public for him. The unique opportunity to mark the History of the Game was there for many, but the tears of the defeated champion no doubt made it more human and appreciable in the eyes of many fans.

Flash in the pan or the emergence of lasting popularity, especially in the absence of Federer and Nadal? The question is open. “It was mostly because the Grand Slam was in play and everyone was talking about it. I’m afraid for Djokovic that it will fall a bit. Let’s imagine that Zverev, for example, wins the Australian Open to start 2022, it suffices for Djoko to behave a little bit in a match for him to get people back. I think he has to focus above all on himself, his goals and not expect much from the public. He can only be pleasantly surprised. He must make the most of his last years of his career“, concludes Camille Pin.

For the legacy of Djokovic in the history books of the game, this soaring Grand Slam cannot therefore be seriously considered as good news. But it could nourish the future success of a still long career. Because after all, it is not only in triumphs and exploits that we recognize champions, but also in their ability to reinvent themselves once on land.