Djokovic enriched his season by winning the ATP Finals for the sixth time.
Novak Djokovic enriched his season by winning the ATP Finals for the sixth time. In addition to having equaled Roger Federer’s record, the Serbian phenomenon has shown that he is still the man to beat. This year the former world number 1 paid dearly for his choice not to get vaccinated against the Coronavirus, having had to miss the Australian Open and the US Open.
The bad Australian soap opera also caused him serious image damage, destabilizing him a lot from a mental point of view. He only saw the real Nole at Wimbledon, where he triumphed for the fourth time in a row (the seventh ever).
The 35-year-old from Belgrade thus equaled his idol Pete Sampras and climbed to 21 Grand Slams, just one length away from Rafael Nadal’s all-time record. The ‘Djoker’ will try the hook already at the 2023 Australian Open, where he will go hunting for his tenth seal.
In the latest edition of the ‘Court N°1’ podcast on RMC, Gilles Simon said that many players are not adopting the correct tactic against Djokovic.
Simon opens up on Djokovic
Now retired after having nicely ended his career during the Paris-Bercy Masters 1000, Gilles Simon the “prof” continues to share his tactical knowledge and his analytical skills.
Guest of the Court N°1 podcast on RMC, the Niçois shared a question about Novak Djokovic. “What I don’t understand when I watch Djokovic is that there isn’t a player when he does his cross smash at two per hour in a slice, because he always does that one, which covers it!
We’ve seen him do it on TV for 20 years and he’s never done anything else. I saw his match against Tsitsipas at Bercy where in the end I tell myself that it is played at one or two points. If you recover a point this way… (The outcome may be different).
And I tell myself that we still saw him play Novak! When he smashes, it’s automatic. If you block a player’s favorite areas, at some point he will force it. If you force him to play in an area he likes less, he’s going to start missing one, and when he gets back in his area, you counter him.
I am always surprised that we can finally be wrong tactically against these players that we have seen play a billion times.” Despite having a limited 2022 season, Novak Djokovic proved that his overall game has no limits, at least, that’s what journalist Chris Oddo believes.
“Isn’t it funny how people panic and tend to think like, ‘Novak Djokovic is not right, he’s shivering at a changeover, this is it, he’s going to fall down and lose this match,’ It’s kind of like, haven’t we done this before, doubted him physically or his limitations or whatever?” Chris Oddo said.
