Patrick Mouratoglou is only conditionally surprised by Novak Djokovic’s fable comeback. He also sees the Serbs back at their old level after a two-year crisis.
Novak Djokovic completed an outstanding second half of the year and finished the season in first place in the ATP World Ranking due to various injuries to Rafael Nadal. For Patrick Mouratoglou, who caused a sensation in the US Open final as coach of Serena Williams, this is anything but a sensation.
“His crisis was mainly mental. He wasn’t himself on the court, you couldn’t recognize him. It’s no surprise that he has come back so quickly since all this has returned,” the Frenchman explains to the L’Equipe. “He’s a great champion.”
The industry leader won the Grand Slams in Wimbledon and New York and completed the “Career Gold Masters” in Cincinnati. “We’ve seen the real Novak again. He’s extremely dominant again,” says Mouratoglou.
At the ATP finals in London this dominance was once broken by the German Alexander Zverev. The 21-year-old won the final clearly in two sets. Djokovic seems to have some problems with the new generation anyway. All three defeats since his triumph at Wimbledon were suffered by players significantly younger than the 31-year-old.
In Toronto he lost to Stefanos Tsitsipas, in Paris-Bercy the djoker lost to Karen Khachanov and in the year-end final on the Thames he lost to Zverev. These defeats are an indication that the Serb is quite beatable.
Tennis fans can therefore look forward to an exciting 2019 season. Djokovic will open his season in Doha, after which the world number one as well as the entire world elite will go to the first Grand Slam tournament of the year in Melbourne.