“He is like Serena Williams, always the favourite” Todd Martin points out what makes Novak Djokovic a big contender for Wimbledon 2022
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Novak Djokovic, Serena Williams, Todd Martin
World No. 3 Novak Djokovic is the 3-time defending champion at the ongoing 2022 Wimbledon Championships and is looking for his 7th Wimbledon title and his 21st Grand Slam title. The Serb is into the quarter-finals and is looking likely to make a successful title defence once again given the manner in which he has won his four matches so far at the All-England Club.
With Djokovic unlikely to play at the 2022 US Open due to his decision to remain unvaccinated, the Serb will put all of his efforts into winning the Grand Slam in England as it is his last chance this season to add to his Grand Slam tally. Novak is currently on a 25-match winning streak in Wimbledon and last lost a completed match at the Grand Slam in 2016 as he had to forfeit the match in 2017 due to an injury.
Also Read: Serena Williams’ unexplained absence from Wimbledon’s Centenary celebrations revealed
“I still believe that he is the best tennis player in the world”: Novak Djokovic
Praising Djokovic, former World No. 4 and CEO of the ITF, Todd Martin recently discussed the game of the Serbian that makes him an elite athlete and the best tennis player ever. He used examples of the legend of the game like Pete Sampras, Andre Agassi, Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal as well to differentiate Novak from the others.
“I look at Novak now the way I looked at Serena before – that is, the basic premise is that he is the favourite, always. Always Novak. This year has been challenging for him because he hasn’t been able to play often, but it seems to me that he is mentally focused and physically in the right shape. When that’s the case, I still believe that he is the best tennis player in the world.
“On the other hand, Rafa is still incredibly consistent, even when he’s 5-10 percent off his peak. He’s still maniacal in his focus, so I think we see more crashes with Novak than we see with Rafa. Somewhere between 2000 and 2005, how you defend yourself became extremely important on grass. Federer was the first to really prove it, but so was Lleyton Hewitt before him. In fact, you couldn’t succeed on grass without an outstanding ability to defend, and in my time neither Pete (Sampras) nor Andre (Agassi) had that.
“That’s number one, the defence has always been Novak’s strength, and now it’s being rewarded on grass as well as on other surfaces. Also, his return is the best of all time, in my opinion.” And I think it will stay that way for a long time after he retires, it will be hard to find someone who returns better – one of the reasons for that is that the way he returns works equally well on all surfaces.
“We come to the most important thing. Fifteen years ago, how many people looked at Novak and said: ‘This is the mentally strongest and most focused man on the Tour’? No one would say that. Now, when his stars are aligned properly, he is mentally the strongest – on grass, concrete and clay,” said Martin speaking with Serbian media outlet Sport Klub.
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Sarthak Shitole
(3462 Articles Published)