Maybe in some different world, we wouldn’t all be waiting to see if Novak Djokovic would win his 21st Grand Slam title to reset tennis history? But in this world, there is a very different Nole.
On a warm evening in September 2007, 20-year-old Novak Djokovic left Arthur Ashe Stadium with the silver trophy in his hand, the trophy for the US Open runner-up. He got into a waiting car and sped away into the night. That car was the beginning of the journey to surpass Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal to enter history for the boy who grew up in his hometown of Serbia, engulfed in the flames of war.
Previously, at the ATP Masters 1000 in Montreal in early August, Djokovic consecutively defeated the top 3 players in the world at that time: Andy Roddick, Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer. At the same time, he also became the first player to defeat Federer and Nadal in the same tournament.
Djokovic’s opponent in his first Grand Slam final is Federer, whom he just defeated in Canada. However, in New York , Nole failed. At that time, Federer was on a 27-match winning streak at the US Open and was looking for his fourth consecutive title, an achievement that no male tennis player had accomplished since Bill Tilden in 1925. While Djokovic was just Having had its first Grand Slam final, the “Express Train” had 11 Grand Slam titles in its collection.
And Djokovic didn’t have a chance that evening. He had 5 points at the end of the first game but failed to take advantage of them, and then lost in the tie-break series. He continued to have 2 set-points in the second game, but then he missed, and the scenario of the first game was once again repeated. Decreased morale after two tense games caused Nole to lose the match in the third game.
Djokovic was sad after the match: “My next book will be called “7 set points”. Once again, Roger has shown that he is the best.” This victory helped Federer win his 12th Grand Slam title, surpassing Bjorn Borg and Rod Laver to rank second on the list of the best tennis players of all time, just shy of Pete’s record of 14 titles. Sampras.
Four and a half months after losing to Federer, Djokovic won his first Grand Slam title at the 2008 Australian Open, defeating Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in the final. But it wasn’t until 2011 that the “Nole era” officially began. He won 3 of the 4 Grand Slam titles in 2011 including Australian Open, Wimbledon and US Open. In it, he twice defeated Rafael Nadal .
Worth mentioning, Nole’s winning rate in major tournaments is also the best in the “Big 3” group. As of February 2021, on average, for every 3.3 events he appears in, he has won 1 championship (59 titles after 194 tournaments). While Nadal’s figure is 3.4 (56/191), Federer’s is 4.4 (54/237).
Stable performance in the last 10 seasons has helped Djokovic match his two great rivals in terms of number of Grand Slam titles. And the 2021 US Open may be the place that marks Djokovic surpassing Federer and Nadal to boldly enter the “temple of world tennis legends”.
The future of world tennis may call for Alexander Zverev , Daniil Medvedev or Stefanos Tsitsipas, but everything in the present is still Djokovic’s. It’s clear that compared to Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal, who are on the other side of their careers, Novak Djokovic is in a different world.
