In a match that has rocked the tennis world, 22-year-old world No.55 Jiri Vesely has beaten the seemingly unstoppable force that is Novak Djokovic, in Round 2 of the Monte Carlo Rolex Masters, 6-4, 2-6, 6-4. It is the biggest upset since – well – who can say?
If you missed the match and checked the score over your morning coffee, you would likely spit it out in disbelief. Given the shadow Djokovic cast over men’s tennis in 2015, you might as well have read the sky is green. The extraordinarily high level the Serbian has been playing it has looked, in every sense of the word, all but unbeatable for some time now. In addition, Djokovic has not been beaten by a player outside the top 50 since his loss to fellow Serb Viktor Troicki in 2007.
In short, this defeat at the hands of the world No.55, in the second round, at a Masters 1000, which he won last year, is the equivalent of stopping a tornado with the flap of a butterfly’s wings. The natural order has been tipped on its head, and nobody would feel that more keenly than Djokovic himself.
So what exactly went wrong? Obviously, Djokovic did not play his best tennis. However, he has won many a match, and many a tournament, not playing his best. It was more than that. His opponent, although ranked 54 places below him, came in with a distinct game plan and simple objective; don’t give in.
Vesely played a truly excellent match. Rather than Djokovic making the 22-year-old play the extra ball (which the Serb does so terrifyingly well), it was Vesely thumping Djokovic around the court. He seemed to demand of himself that he dominate the rallies, regardless of Djokovic’s proficiency and power. He mixed up walloping baseline defence with impeccable drop shots, surprising the world no.1 many a time. And most importantly, he played without fear.
The casual observer would have expected Djokovic to win the match after he took the second set 6-2. We’ve seen it before; a simple slip in concentration costs him the opener, but he comes roaring back in the second. However, for whatever reason, this time he couldn’t pull it off. Perhaps he was tired, or injured, or sick. Or maybe, just maybe, this is a sign of the inevitable lull Djokovic is surely due for.
Although up until this point, Djokovic has won every completed match he’s played this year (the exception being his semi-final retirement against Feliciano Lopez in Dubai), he has looked undeniably wobbly. Yes, the wins are coming, but they’re taking longer, and are much, much closer that they were last year. In 2015, pushing Djokovic to a tiebreaker was almost unthinkable. This year, he’s played five in the space of a month.
The otherworldly standard he displayed during his 6-1, 6-2 dismissal of Rafael Nadal in Doha in January was nowhere to be seen at their semi-final in Indian Wells, where Nadal had a set point, pushed the first to a tiebreaker, and refused to be broken in the second until Djokovic had hammered at his serve for 40 minutes. Djokovic infamously made 100 unforced errors against Gilles Simon at this year’s Australian Open, and has had a series of uncomfortably close calls since then.
Yes, these are slim margins. However, when you are the best, the only person you have to compete against is yourself. And despite the wins in Indian Wells and Miami, Djokovic has not played anywhere near his imperious best for the last two months.
Look; it’s not surprising. Making final after final means you play more tennis than anyone else. It’s bound to take a toll mentally and physically. Not being challenged for a long time can get tedious, so any kind of unusual resistance can trip a top player. And jumping from cement to clay isn’t easy on anyone, especially given Djokovic’s comfort on the hard courts.
Can we prophesy the Serbian’s decline based on one match? No, of course not. That would be foolish. However, this defeat proves while Novak Djokovic is brilliant, he is not superman. He does not have magic powers. If you look past the score lines and pay attention to the play, it’s been obvious for a little while now that this has been very much on the cards.
Knowing Djokovic, he will go away, analyse what went wrong, and come back with even more vice and venom. But in the meantime, he has proven to the rest of the tour he is beatable. He can be challenged by those who play without fear, and who refuse to be intimidated by his aura. As for the rest of the legendary Big 4, Federer, Nadal, and Murray; they are waiting in the wings, ready to strike.
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