Gilles Simon left surprised at how players have chosen the wrong tactics against Novak Djokovic despite the Serb not being dynamic in his style
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Gilles Simon and Novak Djokovic
Former World No.6 Gilles Simon has recently opened up in a podcast on how new players are not able to beat Novak Djokovic despite the Serbian has declined dynamics and peak physicality. Novak Djokovic has had a remarkable season as he has won almost everything he played this year. The Serbian jointly owns the record for the most ATP titles won with Carlos Alcaraz in 2022(5) in spite of missing a lot of tournaments including 2 Grand Slams.
The French 37-year-old retired from tennis after the Paris-Bercy Masters 1000 a month back and he has been attending some podcasts and tennis talks recently. During a recent one, he gave an analysis of how the new players are not even trying to exploit the decline in Serbian’s physicality. He said that he is amazed at how the Serbian is still pushing his limits and using strategies to overcome the young guns.
As quoted by Simon, “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)“
Continuing his train of thought, Simon touched upon the analytical approaches to counter an all-round player like Djokovic. He noted, “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.” (Source:N°1 podcast on RMC, translated via Google)
Novak Djokovic is leading the head-to-head against most of the younger players
1980s-born Novak Djokovic is battling now against the 2000s generation in addition to the 1990s generation. He has constantly shown the tennis world how to deal with faster young guns who are currently at their best forms. However, more interestingly, the question is how long he can continue.
Djokovic has a winning record against most of the players born in the 1990s (minimum 2 matches played against each other) except Australian Powerhouse Nick Kyrgios (1-2) and 29-year-old Czech Jiri Vesely (0-2). He leads 10-2 against 24-year-old Stefanos Tsitsipas, 4-0 against 23-year-old Casper Ruud, 8-4 against 26-year-old Daniil Medvedev, 25-year-old Alexander Zverev, and 7-5 against 29-year-old Dominic Thiem.
Coming to the record against the 2000-born, he has a losing record against 19-year-old Carlos Alcaraz (0-1) but tied 1-1 against 22-year-old Felix Auger Aliassime and 19-year-old Holger Rune. He has defeated 21-year-old Jannik Sinner twice and once. He also has a 3-0 record against a promising 20-year-old Lorenzo Musetti. 2023 is promising to be a battle among three generations of tennis and the tennis world is waiting for that.
As Simon explained, the new guns will have to try something different to stop the Serbian in the coming seasons.
Also Read: Holger Rune reveals his favorite player among the Big-3 following a historic Paris Masters title run
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Vipul Payattuparambil
(552 Articles Published)