Not so long ago Novak Djokovic would have enjoyed his free time on a tournament Monday. Finally, one of the privileges of the best players in the world is that they receive a bye in the first rounds of an ATP master; the best players should also act as PR locomotives for the competitions for a few days. But these times are over for the “Djoker”.
Novak Djokovic was once one of the best players in the world, even the best on paper and on all Centre Courts around the globe. There was the one historic, magical moment when the “Djoker” held all four Grand Slam titles simultaneously in his possession, which was when he finally won the French Open in 2016. The tournament that had presented him with insurmountable riddles for years.
This player is not Novak Djokovic anymore. He is no longer the serial winner, the self-confident marathon fighter, the gladiator, who ran his opponents to the ground with merciless consequence and won 90 percent of his matches per season.
And that’s why Djokovic, the 30-year-old from Belgrade, is now a man who has to play on a Monday. Or more generally: The man who always has to throw himself into tennis duels in the first round against any opponent. In Madrid, where he will compete this week, the draw could have given him the clay court champion Rafael Nadal as well, it would have been a crazy hint of fate.
But Djokovic didn’t have an easy time either when the long-time Japanese top ten player Kei Nishikori was assigned to him in the draw. Djokovic versus Nishikori, it could have been a Grand Slam final two or three years ago. But now, in the turmoil of Djokovic’s creeping descent due to motivation problems and injury pitch, it was a first-round crash – after all with a happy ending for the formerly so smooth and agile Serb (7:5, 6:4).
Djokovic, 2015 and, in some cases, 2016, the most superior number 1 tennis has ever had, is still in crisis mode despite this exclamation point victory. He’s had an unprecedented roller coaster ride and may now finally be moving away from the low point again.
A moment ago, this perfectionist was the boss of a flourishing company, a boss who had chosen each of his employees with pedantic care. Boris Becker was one of them, long-time coach and companion Marijan Vajda, the Austrian fitness and nutrition pope Gebhard Gritsch, top chefs who were flown in especially for Grand Slam tournaments. And of course changing top physiotherapists.
But then, the French Open title was won at the beginning of June 2016, when this total work of art, the company Djoker and Co. collapsed at a speed that amazed everyone in the tennis circus, including their fellow players. Djokovic quickly lacked the desire to deal with the crisis seriously. He fell for a Spanish ex-pro named Pepe Imaz, who soon appeared in the headlines as a cuddly guru, a man who preached a rather banal peace-and-love theory. He wanted to be and become a better person, but what he became above all was: A worse tennis player.
Who now looked around Madrid, after all the turbulences around and with Djokovic, was not badly astonished. The former leader of the travelling circus, who first lost (or fired) his strong tennis ego and then all his faithful ones, and who was also badly injured, this Djokovic was again surrounded by the old staff at the Masters Festival of Impresario Ion Tiriac – with the exception of Boris Becker, who does not want to burden himself with the hassle of a tough comeback at the moment.
But Vajda, the man of the first hour at Djokovic, and also Gritsch, the memorable Austrian with the polished-looking bald head and the angular profile, they are back. It is actually an unimaginable image, this reunited team Djokovic – it seems as if an old, yellowed motif has come out of the family album again.
Djokovic was once able to maintain his position as one of the brightest strategists of the tennis caravan together with elitist competitors such as Federer and Nadal. Djokovic got Andre Agassi to his side – which would not have been bad if they had agreed beforehand on the way to the desired goals.
So Agassi went rather in anger when it became clear that not even in small tactical or training aspects a togetherness unfolded. The Czech Radek Stepanek also came and went again, another mistake made by Djokovic, a personality that made experts shake their heads. Now the former advisors and thinkers are to judge it.
Djokovic is currently number 12 in the world, he says of himself that “self-confidence is not very high” at the moment, the challenge in his career has never been greater than in this 2018 season: “Finding faith in oneself is a massive task. In the end, only victories count,” says the Serbian, who used to take victories for granted in his daily business.
In 2015 he won 82 times, lost only six games. His victory over Nishikori in Madrid was only his fourth this year, after three defeats. Djokovic’s fight to become one of the market leaders in tennis again is and remains one of the great stories of this season. With completely open exit.