Novak Djokovics tennis is good enough to win more Grand slams, but his body is at its border

Melbourne, Australia – Novak Djokovic won some of his 24 Grand Slams without playing his best tennis. If his level was not quite where it had to be, his body rose to surpass and over -maneuver his opponents.

Before he became the Novak-Djokovic, he is now-the Grand Slam Title holder of the men and the longest-lasting member of the ‘Big Three’-in a completely different situation. Its level was comparable to that of Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal, but his body kept abandoning him.

He withdrew against Nadal at the French Open 2006; A year later he did the same against the same opponent in the Wimbledon semi -final. His symptoms were so notorious that Andy Roddick mocked him in 2008 in a withered attack, which indicates that some of his injuries were not real.

Roddick listed diseases like: “Bird flu … Anthrax. Sars. Frequent coughing and cold ”when he was asked about Djokovic’s injuries. Federer also criticized Djokovic after retirement against Roddick at the Australian Open 2009 and said: “It happened before, he is not the type who has never given up. So it is somehow disappointing.”

Sixteen years later and now at the age of 37, Djokovic seems to have closed the circle. His level is there, but his body fails to him.

On Friday at the Australian Open, a physically compromised Djokovic 81 minutes of his semi-finals were able to go with the world No. 2 Alexander Zverev and only lost a strenuous first set when he missed a Sitter volley about the network 5-6 in a tie-break. Djokovic immediately retired, shook Zverev and waved the crowd when he left the court.

Djokovic was even able to beat the reigning French Open and the Wimbledon Champion Carlos Alcaraz in the quarter -finals on Tuesday, even though he had torn a muscles in his left leg towards the end of the first set. The same problem forced him to withdraw against Zverev, which underlined the miracle of this victory on Tuesday as well as the Gulf between playing adrenaline and painkillers and the recovery of acute muscle injury.

In June he had a similar miracle last June at the French Open and defeated Francisco Cerundolo in five sets, although he had torn the media meniscus in the middle of the game in his right knee. He was operated on after the tournament and reached Wimbledon’s final less than six weeks later.

None of the miracles had a happy ending. He retired from the French Open before his next game against Casper Ruud; In Wimbledon, Carlos Alcaraz used his limited movement and blew it with a 6: 2, 6-2, 7: 6 (4) victory from the square in which the Djokovic scoreboard flattered.

These results, two retirement and an injury -related thrashing, make up three of the last four Grand Slams from Djokovic. He also left the 2024 US Open in a shock loss to Alexei Popyrin, in which his flexibility and durability were rather fleeting than fundamental.

Djokovic is now in a compromised fang-22: he has the level to win the four five-set majors that he actually interests, but the physicality, the three-set events that most of the ATP -Tourt make out and about which he he doesn’t care about it. It is a cruel coda for someone who was used to withdrawn hardly any credible Houdini acts, especially here in Melbourne, where he won the title with muscle cracks in 2021 and 2023.

This time Novak Djokovic’s body was not able to maintain a Grand Slam semi -final. (Yuichi Yamazaki / AFP via Getty Images)

In Jannik Sünder and Alcaraz, Djokovic also has two proper rivals that can exceed him on the square. Both smoked him in Grand Slam games last year before Djokovic Alcaraz defeated Straight sets in the Olympic gold medal game and defeated him here again on Tuesday.

In an individual competition, especially over three sets, he is still a game for both. But Grand Slams are not about individual victories. They are an exercise in accumulation and perseverance, in which the players have to beat one and sometimes two or three of their strongest competitors while making sure they do not consume too much energy to earn the opportunity.

Djokovic, who dominated the art of winning the first four rounds of a major with as little difficulty as possible in his career, is the greatest exponent of the Grand Slam Teep that the sport has ever seen. At the Australian Open 2019, he lost two games in the quarter -finals against Kei Nishikori, who had to retire in the second set, and then beat Lucas Pouille to lose four games to reach the final. A year later, when the 2020 final went on a fifth set, it was Djokovic, not Dominic Thiem, who was able to dig deeply and find something special.

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Five years later, the course of time did what is inevitable, and Djokovic hobbles from the majors who made a career because they were one of the ultimate endurance tests in men’s tennis. After withdrawing against Zverev, he admitted that the “statistics against him” were against the frequency of his recent injuries.

“It’s not like I’m worried about approaching every Grand Slam, regardless of whether I am hurt,” he said. “It is true that I (I) have been very much injured in recent years. I don’t know exactly what the reason for this is. Maybe several different factors. “

The most obvious factor is his age. The endurance of Serena Williams, Nadal and Federer has again made up the end of a tennis career, but even Djokovic’s superhuman colleagues had stopped winning Majors at the age he is now. Federer won his last slam with 36 in 2018. Nadal won the 2022 French Open two days after the same age, but this has done this with a completely anesthetized foot and has not been a factor for a major since then. Andy Murray, Djokovics coach here in Melbourne, won the last of his three majors at 29 and took his last appearance of the second week shortly after the age of 30.

“It is unfortunate if the body doesn’t react as you want,” said Murray on Friday to a small group of reporters.

Nevertheless, Djokovic is not finished.

“I will always strive to win more slams. And as long as I have the feeling that I want to accept all of this, I will be there, ”he said.

If the opening and closure chapter from Djokovic’s career proves to be symmetrical, his career will still be reminded in the 13 years and the record number of majors, which came in between if either his body, his mind or his fake talent would compensate for any temporary defects .

While he is through his own meat, the future of his search for more is the biggest title of sport more unsafe than ever before.

(Top photo: Andy Cheung / Getty Images)