Previous to the ATP Finals, Novak Djokovic had performed simply 10 tour occasions—discounting the Laver Cup—this yr. He was packed off from one nation, refused entry into one other. His season’s solely Grand Slam victory carried no rating factors. But, the Serb certified among the many prime eight gamers for Turin’s season-ending finale. And signed off successful it.
Welcome to Djoker’s theatre of the weird. Few boss it fairly like him. Djokovic equalled Roger Federer’s tally of six ATP Finals titles defeating Norwegian Casper Ruud 7-5, 6-3 within the last on Sunday. He dropped only one set—a tiebreaker to Daniil Medvedev—via the week, belying his match seeding of No 7 and world rating of No 8.
The title pushed Djokovic three locations up within the rankings on Monday, however even the 4 sitting above him would in all probability agree he has been the participant to beat, particularly within the season’s latter half.
After returning to the tour a few months after his Wimbledon title, Djokovic gained three of the 4 tournaments he entered, solely dropping a detailed three-set last to Holger Rune on the Paris Masters. General, Djokovic has gained 5 titles this season, matched by Carlos Alcaraz, the world No 1. Djokovic has a 42-7 win-loss document, a greater proportion than Alcaraz and one of the best amongst all gamers this yr.
“I at all times see myself as one of the best participant on the earth,” Djokovic mentioned after his title in Turin. “I’ve that type of mentality and that type of strategy. No matter who’s throughout the web, no matter what the floor is, no matter what season it’s.”
Whatever the vaccination standing… oh wait.
“We do not want to return. We all know what occurred,” Djokovic mentioned.
It’s value going again for what extra could have been for the 21-time Grand Slam champion.
Djokovic flew into Australia at first of the yr with the tag of a three-time defending champion and an exemption for being unvaccinated. What adopted was drama at its peak: Djokovic was questioned for hours on the airport, positioned in a detention centre, made to combat within the courtroom of legislation to remain put within the land earlier than being sensationally deported.
That occurred lower than 24 hours earlier than his title defence at Melbourne Park, the place Djokovic is usually an unstoppable beast. His anti-vaccine stand would proceed to chunk him all through the season. The Serb could not enter USA in March to play the hard-court tournaments in Indian Wells, California or Miami because the nation mandated vaccination. It remained the case some months later, forcing Djokovic to overlook the Western & Southern Open in Cincinnati, Nationwide Financial institution Open in Canada and the US Open in New York.
That’s numerous tournaments and two Grand Slams not performed on account of his vaccination standing, and numerous rating factors dropped regardless of defending his Wimbledon title (the Slam was stripped of rating factors because of the ban on Russian and Belarusian gamers).
“Alcaraz is No. 1, I suppose with a little bit of a star subsequent to his identify,” Matthew Ebden, who joined Djokovic at this Wimbledon’s honours board as the boys’s doubles champion, mentioned in a chat over Zoom.
“I imply, Novak was efficiently the world No 1, defended his Wimbledon crown and went from No 1 to 7 due to politics of the factors. That was ridiculous, clearly. He was in all probability favorite for the US Open.
“I believe it’s fairly clear that he’s one of the best participant on the planet proper now. Everybody on the tour principally nonetheless considers Novak because the world No 1. Probably within the subsequent 3-6 months, Novak might be again there anyway,” added the Australian doubles world No 26 and former top-40 singles professional who will probably be in India subsequent month for the Tennis Premier League.
Generational shift? Not but
Which brings us to an oft-repeated query: has the generational shift lastly began to take form?
“Yeah, it seems like folks have been speaking about that for 10 years!” Ebden chuckled.
“It’s kind of occurred with the assistance of some exterior circumstances, however I can’t say it’s absolutely occurred but.”
The 36-year-old Rafael Nadal made that outstanding comeback with the Australian Open triumph and pocketed one other French Open. On the different finish of the age stick, Alcaraz, 19, capped off a breathtakingly breakthrough season that fetched him 5 titles with US Open glory. Ruud, 23, made the finals in Paris and New York. Felix-Auger Aliassime, 22, scaled a career-high world No 6 with 4 titles as well. Rune, 19, bagged three titles together with a Masters.
“It’s true that these tremendous younger guys are actually popping up, the place in all probability 5 years in the past somebody thought that perhaps it was (Grigor) Dimitrov or (Dominic) Thiem or (Alexander) Zverev doing it. However now it’s guys youthful than them–Alcaraz, (Jannik) Sinner, Felix—who’re stepping up and successful these huge Masters or Slams or getting near the highest rankings. It’s thrilling for the sport.”