Mats Wilander praises Novak Djokovic’s ‘Showmanship’ on the court calling the Serb “An animal on a tennis court”
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Novak Djokovic and Mats Wilander
Swedish former World No.1 Mats Wilander called Novak Djokovic “an animal on a tennis court”, eliciting a plethora of reactions online. For context, Wilander recently talked about the antics of the Serbian during the change of ends against World No.7 Daniil Medvedev in the ATP finals, Turin, pointing out the qualities of the Serbian on the court which is an absolute treat for the spectators.
The Swede started the talks on how the showmanship in tennis has changed over course of time which was then branched to the wave of emotions a tennis player needs to endure on the court. In his words, “There’s more showmanship in professional tennis now, and the showmanship of emotions is what attracts people to their screens in general“
Continuing the train of thought, Wilander discusses how the antics of Novak Djokovic make him feel, “So I like this side. Djokovic has to deal with the gaze of millions of people all the time, except during a game when it’s just him and another person. He exchanges with this person, and this exchange includes his emotions, his thoughts, and his physical state.“
Wilander continued on how well the Serbian keeps his on-court mentality to overcome challenges and difficult moments. As quoted by him, “So I don’t take anything special from it, except that the guy is an absolute physical beast, and emotionally he’s also an animal on a tennis court. It’s fantastic!” (Source: We love Tennis, translated via Google)
Novak Djokovic’s incredible 2022- Report card
Serbian World No.5 Novak Djokovic has won almost everything where he got a chance this year. After missing most of the tournaments, including 2 majors, he is still inside the top 5 despite getting no points on winning Wimbledon. This in short proves how effective he has been in the tournaments he got a chance to play this year.
Including the triumph in Wimbledon, Djokovic jointly owns the record for the most ATP titles won with Carlos Alcaraz in 2022(5). With the ATP finals title, Djokovic became the first player since Roger Federer in 2010 to win at least one title each of each level in the same calendar season. The Serbian won 5 titles this season: 1 ATP250,1 ATP500,1 ATP1000, 1 ATP Finals, and 1 Grand Slam.
Djokovic also increases the ‘Big Titles’ count to 65 this year- the highest ever in history. The closest competitor is Rafael Nadal with 59. (For the uninitiated, ‘Big titles’ include the titles won in Grand Slam championships, ATP Finals, ATP Masters 1000 tournament, and an Olympic singles gold medal)
By ending the year as number 5 in the rankings, Novak Djokovic has finished the year inside Top-5 for the 15th time (1 behind All-time record held by Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal with 16 Top-5 year finishes). With a bunch of records broken despite not playing a number of tournaments this year, a rejuvenated Djokovic will try to break more in 2023. The green signal to play Australian Open will be a huge boost for him as well.
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