“The favorite is Novak”: In a month, Djokovic returned to the center of the game

It was only five weeks ago but it seems like an eternity. On April 12, Novak Djokovic returned to competition in Monte-Carlo and lost at the start against Alejandro Davidovich Fokina. The Spaniard is not a gift on clay and he would also reach the final on the Rock a few days later, but “Nole” appeared far from the account. Everyone could see it.

Mischa Zverev was not surprised. The German, both big brother and trainer of Alexander, had been able to see the damage upstream of the princely Masters 1000. “He had trained before the tournament with Sascha, he tells us. He looked much slower than usual. His shots lacked accuracy and placement too.” Djokovic was not starting from scratch, but the work was immense after his first quarter was truncated for the reasons that everyone knows.

But if he was struggling tennistically and physically on the street, envy never abandoned him. Here again, it is Mischa Zverev who testifies: “In general, you no longer see the top players on the tournament site when they have been eliminated. But there, the day after or two days after his defeat, he was there training, on the court at the very back (of the Monte Carlo Country Club, editor’s note). He didn’t care to know that everything was happening elsewhere, that there were the quarters, the halves without him. He had only one goal in mind: to progress, to improve his game. You could see it clearly, he was hungry.”

The rest was only a matter of time. In Belgrade, it was much better, although laborious. A defeat in the final against Andrei Rublev. In Madrid, he then reached the semi-finals before losing to Carlos Alcaraz. Just like everyone else. But this week ended with a 7-5 defeat in the tie-break of the last set against the new darling of the circuit, it was tempting to draw a positive balance sheet. Pupil Djokovic, on the right track. Then there was Rome where, by successively beating Auger-Aliassime, Ruud and Tsitsipas in the final, the Serb won his first title of the season. At the best time. Right on time.

“Djokovic didn’t care what happened in Monte-Carlo, estimates Mats Wilander. There, he didn’t look good physically at the end of his match against Davidovich Fokina. But it is forgotten. For me, the favorite is Novak. His victory in Rome will boost his confidence but I also think he has a feeling of revenge after everything that has happened to him in recent months. This will give him strength. He comes to Roland-Garros to defend his title, after being prevented from defending his crown at the Australian Open. It’s not nothing for him.”

The former Swedish champion told Eurosport he “prefers Djokovic’s preparation to that of Alcaraz”. Then the world number one is no longer at an age where he needs to pile up victories and titles to arrive confident at Roland-Garros. On the contrary. “The main thing for him was to prove to himself that he was again capable of delivering big and long fights, like the one against Alcaraz in Madrid. Even if he lost, the main thing was elsewhere“, continues Wilander. The victory in Rome, basically, was only there to support the point. Like the icing on the cake. “He is a player who knows his body and his tennis better than anyone else. He really is from another planet“, summarizes Mischa Zverev.

But the most impressive, once again, is how Novak Djokovic managed to dispel doubt in minimal time. As if nothing could ever touch him permanently. The force of conviction and that of habit, for Mats Wilander: “It’s in him. He has in his memory all those moments when he showed his best tennis on the most important points. He has in his memory the fact of believing in his instinct to always make the right decision at the right time. The past always helps Novak in the present, that’s where he draws his strength. When he seems convinced again that he is making the right choices, that’s when he becomes the best player in the world again..”

Has he become the great, the very great Djokovic again? That of the 2021 season, for example? Perhaps not quite strictly in terms of the game, but it is not necessarily the main thing for him to believe Wilander. “I don’t think he hits the ball as well as he used to, his confidence might not be quite the same, but if he believes in his own choices again then he can become unstoppable again“, assures the Eurosport consultant.

By the way, what does the main interested party think? Without proclaiming himself a favorite, the “Djoker” sent a message to the competition on Friday. Yes, he feels more than ready to go for a new major title: “I am still in the fight for a Grand Slam title. I believe in my ability to go far and fight for one of the most prestigious trophies in tennis. And even more as defending champion, I think I can do it again. With all due respect to the players, to tennis and to the tournament, I believe in my chances because I’ve done it before and I know what it takesReally, Monte-Carlo seems far away. Very far.