Novak Djokovic, all the necessary properties to be unbeatable in the same container

Science should try to help us figure out why someone can hold almost every record in an individual sport.. How is that accomplished? Because from the earthly, in many cases, it sounds incredible. Just like Ringo Bonavena who when the bell rang, they even took the bench out of him, in tennis they don’t take the bench out of you but you are really in a clear dispute against each other. And in that sense, Novak Djokovic continues to confirm that he is the best of all time.

It is not a matter of taste. It is not a question of empathy. It is not a matter of preferences or weakness. It is a strictly numerical question. Djokovic is efficient and effective. Especially in Grand Slam tournaments, where he always had his focus, so much so that since this Sunday he is the most winning man in these “big”: 23 consecrations. The world is already beginning to surrender at his feet, because everything he has achieved has been done based on engineering and architecture typical of someone super special. And humbly I would like to go a little more into how and why he has achieved so much.

It is not a question of standing out for power or simply for being regular or because physically one is different from the rest. Everything that Djokovic has achieved has to do with the fact that practically all the necessary properties and more are found in the same container to become the unbeatable, in the invincible. Especially in those five-set matches, and even more so in important matches. He’s already bested his biggest rivals, Federer and Nadal, in one-on-ones.

His main virtues clearly have to do with his physicality, his coordination, his speed, his truly extraordinary resistance and his plasticity on a court. Skating on the cement, as if it were on the brick dust, and handling a surface almost with indifference. With that enormous capacity that makes it unique.

In the tennis aspect, clearly his virtues are in sight. But this is where I would like to help gauge what Djokovic achieves. Because if one does a blow-by-blow competition, Nole will surely always be among the best. The quality of his blows does not present major cracks. That is why he spoke of efficiency and effectiveness. All the blows, the super aesthetic ones and others perhaps technically a little more complex, work perfectly like a true orchestra. And that has to do with why his mentality is special. This is the main aspect that has made Novak Djokovic such a great champion, to be the best of all time, because his mind in many cases is what supports the physical part. In almost every moment in which he was in critical and dramatic situations, he always responded and made the best version of him appear.

I used to say years ago that the best version of Djokovic starts at the worst moment of the game for him and that is a huge merit. His regularity, logically, makes him achieve all these titles, but if one analyzes game by game, sometimes in tournaments he has his ups and downs, he has moments when he plays far below and does not sustain his performance. But he always plays above his opponent. It always ends up averaging above. And his difference is that at critical moments he feels more secure.

Novak knows that his blows are always there. He resists at times when perhaps others give up and understands that the match is often won when it is most difficult, as in this grand final. That’s when you have to put up a fight. After a set in which Ruud left empty-handed, Djokovic knew that the intensity of the physical and mental demand was going to be very difficult to sustain. And at that moment when Djokovic starts to take advantage of you. He starts to beat you mentally and it starts to get you down as you feel your chances drop drastically.

Then the game breaks down, because the opponent inevitably has to look back and ask himself how he will play better. “How do I think three or four more hours from now and maintain the illusion of beating him?” Ruud may have asked himself. That’s why Absent He is what he is and he always had – and he did not hide it – that clear dispute with Federer and Nadal in being better than them. He had a lot of respect for them but was never afraid of them. And that speaks of his character, which in many cases does not end up generating sympathy.

But we are talking about realities and reality shows that Djokovic has had that ability to recover. As the great Uruguayan singer-songwriter says Jorge Drexler, recovering from a failure is relatively easy, but with will and tenacity it is something more common. Djokovic, like the great champions, always went for something more after his great successes. That’s what’s hard.

This Sunday was a historic day for the Serbian and for tennis. And what tastes much more for Novak Djokovic is that his future still holds much bigger goals for him.

look too