The leading men played overtime in Rod Laver Arena in the homestretch of the Australian Open this year, and often exchanged pleasantries with Laver. Rafael Nadal expressed his gratitude that Laver, 73, one of the greatest to play the game, was courtside for their matches. Roger Federer, who has an affinity with Australian tennis, sat next to Laver in a television studio and compared notes with him on rivalries and eras. Novak Djokovic called him “Mr Laver” after meeting him for the first time and then apologised because nobody serves and volleys anymore. “We are running around the baseline,” Djokovic said. “I’m sorry about that.”
But after all the baseline rallies were finally over in Laver Arena at well after midnight Monday morning, the only one of the game’s stars in a position to be on equal terms with Laver this season was Djokovic. He had a troubling autumn after winning the United States Open in September, going down in a heap and a scream in Belgrade, Serbia, after tearing a rib muscle during a Davis Cup match against Argentina. When he returned, he looked short on energy and inspiration. Back in Melbourne to defend his title, he was nowhere near as untouchable as he was in 2011. He struggled for breath and for balance in his final two marathon matches, against Andy Murray and Nadal. But in the end it was all a false dawn for his rivals, as Djokovic ended up in the usual pose, holding the silverware even if he and Nadal required chairs during the ceremony that came after their 5-hour-53-minute final.
Djokovic, Nole to his fans, later added another twist, grabbing a microphone and belting out the AC/DC song “Highway to Hell” on a stage at the Australian Open staff party before making his way to a much more sedate post-match news conference. Bashful Djokovic most certainly is not, and his next tennis quest is now in need of a nickname. Will it be the Djoker Slam, the Djoko Slam or the Nole Slam if he becomes the first man since Laver in 1969 to hold all four Grand Slam singles titles?
Djokovic needs only one more: the French Open in June. Roland Garros is his final frontier — the dusty kingdom ruled by Nadal, who has lost only one match on Paris clay and will be trying to break his tie with Björn Borg this year by winning his seventh singles title. Seven is not Nadal’s lucky number at the moment. Although he still leads Djokovic, 16-14 over all, he has lost their last seven matches, including two on outdoor clay last year. He and Djokovic looked set for a meeting in the French Open final last year before Federer stopped Djokovic’s 43-match winning streak in the semi-finals.
Djokovic has other plans. “I’m playing the best tennis of my life, and in 2011, I made back-to-back wins on the clay against Rafa,” he says. “The semi-finals of Roland Garros was an incredible match against Federer, and so it gives me enough reason to believe that actually I can go to the finals maybe this year, and I’m thinking about it. There is no secret about it, but again, it’s still a long way through. There are still many tournaments to come, but I will definitely prioritise Grand Slams and Olympic Games. That’s my aim this year,” he adds.
To preserve his health in an Olympic year, he does not plan to play Davis Cup, the annual team event that helped launch him into orbit when Serbia won it in December 2010. Djokovic views the 11-month season as a series of mini-seasons punctuated by breaks for rest and training. But some believe Djokovic is in position to think bigger. Mats Wilander, the outspoken former tennis champion, says that Djokovic, if healthy, is in position to make a run at Laver and the true Grand Slam by winning all four majors in the same year. One of the few things holding Djokovic back is his tendency to telegraph his physical difficulties to his opponents, he adds.
What was striking in Melbourne was how upbeat both Murray and Nadal were in defeat. One might think that losing a late-night epic would be enough to make a tennis superstar sullen, but both waxed positive as if getting close to beating Djokovic was a big step toward actually beating Djokovic.
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That is only rock-solid logic if Djokovic was playing close to his best here. It did not appear that way. Aside from his physical issues, he blew hot and cold in the final two rounds, with significantly more errors than winners in both matches. His returning remained consistently brilliant. “His return is probably one of the best in history,” Nadal said. “I never played against a player who’s able to return like this, almost every time.”
The New York Times