“Novak Djokovic will become the GOAT next season” Novak’s former coach predicts a massive 2022 season for the Serbian
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Novak Djokovic and Radek Stepanek
Novak Djokovic was ruthless in Grand Slam competitions in the 2021 season reaching the finals of all 4 majors and went on to win 3 titles except for the 2021 US Open where World No. 2 Daniil Medvedev beat the Serbian to deny him a chance to make history by claiming all 4 Slams in 1 calendar year, a feat that has happened only once in men’s tennis in Open Era when Rod Laver did it in 1969.
Novak had started the 2021 season with 17 Grand Slam titles to his name and ended the 2021 season with 20 titles, matching the tally of long-time rivals and fellow members of Big-3 club, Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal as the trio is now tied on 20 slams each and in a race to take a lead in the race for the most number of Grand Slam titles.
Novak will be the favourite to claim the 21st Grand Slam title as Roger is out for almost the first half of the 2022 season and Nadal will also be making a comeback having ended his 2021 season in August and then testing positive for Covid-19 after he played at the exhibition event in Abu Dhabi.
Speaking about Novak’s chances, former coach Radek Stepanek spoke about the Serbian’s 2022 season and picked him as the favourite to win 21 Slams. “Novak is now playing painlessly. I think he will become the best player of all time next year,” said Radek in his recent interaction with Serbian media channel Sportklub.
Novak Djokovic’s 2021 season: 5 titles from 7 finals
Apart from his 3 Grand Slam titles, Djokovic also won the ATP-250 event on Clay played in Belgrade and then went on to win the 2021 Paris Masters with the win in Paris taking him one ahead of Nadal as the duo was tied on 36 Masters titles each.
Earlier in the season, he had lost in the finals of the Rome Masters to Nadal that saw the Spaniard level Djokovic on the tally of Masters title but Novak made sure he took the lead again before the season ended. Djokovic had a 55-7 record this season, one of his best seasons in terms of the win-loss ratio and also in terms of the titles won as he narrowly missed out on the Calendar Slam.
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Sarthak Shitole
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