Was that it with Novak Djokovic? Is the unique career of the Serbian tennis star perhaps slowly coming to an end? In January he lost a semi-final for the first time ever at the Australian Open – his declared favorite tournament. Now, at his next tournament appearance, it was already over in the third round in Indian Wells. After the 4:6, 6:3, 3:6 against the world number 123. Luca Nardi from Italy told Djokovic himself: “My level was really, really bad.”
In two months, the record winner of Grand Slam tournaments will be 37 years old, and even Djokovic can no longer continue his career at the highest level forever. And the competition smells new dawn with every new defeat. At the moment, South Tyrolean Jannik Sinner looks like the player to beat and not number one Novak Djokovic.
Stop and flashback! Last summer, Djokovic lost to Carlos Alcaraz in the Wimbledon final. Afterwards, the young Spaniard was named the new top player and philosophized about whether he could at some point break into the spheres of Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal or even Djokovic when it came to Grand Slam titles.
Alcaraz has not won a title since then, while Djokovic dominated the rest of the 2023 tennis year with victories at the US Open, two Masters tournaments and the ATP finals. Until the game against Nardi in California, only Sinner was able to defeat him – Djokovic had won all of the other 29 matches since Wimbledon in July.
© Getty Images via AFP/Matthew Stockman
It would probably only motivate him even more if the Twilight of the Gods was prophesied to him again. After all, in his case it wouldn’t be the first time. Djokovic is not currently injured, he is just not at his best. The fact that he has now lost to a player outside the top 50 for the first time since time immemorial sounds more spectacular than it is.
Djokovic still has a lot of time until the French Open in Paris; the second Grand Slam tournament of the year is a higher priority for him in his record hunt than anything that happens until then. It is not to be expected that he will serve in Roland Garros, as he did now in Indian Wells, with almost no match practice.
And that’s why the defeat against Luca Nardi – no matter how sensational it may seem – is nothing more than an industrial accident. Novak Djokovic will know how to assess this correctly and leave it to others to worry about it. Because if things go as they have so often in his career, he will once again be the player in Paris that everyone wants to beat and in the end he may not have made it.
Source: Tagesspiegel
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