more about Novak Djokovic, a tennis champion

 

On Sunday, July 16, 20-year-old Carlos "Carlito" Alcaraz defeated the dominant Novak Djokovic in the Wimbledon men's final.

 

Seven of Djokovic's all-time record 23 Grand Slam tournament wins are at Wimbledon. This was Alcaraz's first time winning the tournament.

 

Tennis has buzzed about Alcaraz for almost two years now. He is the latest young talent believed capable of ending Djokovic's reign.

 

Nevertheless, I, like most tennis fans, believed Djokovic was still too great too consistently to lose this match. But he did, and Alcaraz is the top-ranked player in men's tennis now.

 

The fans cheered on Alcaraz, celebrating not only every winner he smashed across court, but also every Djokovic error. It could have been Alcaraz playing, it could have been Kim Jong Un—the crowd always roots against Djokovic. I wrote a little about this before.

 

Why do people root against him? 

 

I think the first reason is timing: Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal came first, and fans fell in love. Djokovic emerged after fans built relationships with them, and then he was beating tennis fans' heroes.

 

Second, people are shallow. Federer and Nadal are handsome and look like heroes. Djokovic does not look like a hero. He looks like the villain. Maybe part of that is because, in Western culture, villains are often Eastern Europeans.

 

Third—my armchair psychologist's opinion—Djokovic, 36, leans into conflict because he grew up in Serbia in the 1990s. Maybe that plays into the complicated Djokovic-crowd dynamic.

 

Finally, Djokovic really cares whether the crowd likes him, and that is unforgivable. Roger Federer never had to worry about it. Rafael Nadal never seemed to worry. And neither does Alcaraz.

 

Alcaraz's win was the big. Tennis does feel different now. How will fans respond to Djokovic if he falls?

 

From The New Yorker:

Whether this outcome represented a changing of the guard—the vanquishing, finally, of a generation that has ruled men’s tennis since Alcaraz was a toddler—remains to be seen. Djokovic appeared far from finished. What the final showed for sure is that, when it is all on the line, Alcaraz will decide to play his game and be himself, and that what he can bring in those moments is the stuff of greatness.

Notes:

• When the match began, most people, including commentators John and Patrick McEnroe, believed Djokovic would win. But an IBM modeler—supposed AI—predicted Alcaraz, 55-45.
  
• Relevant posts from me: something about Novak Djokovic and his 2022 Australian Open quest and about tennis and a new piece in The New Yorker.

something about great tennis

The New Yorker published "Without Fans, the Drama of the US Open Came from Within," a great piece, right after the 2020 US Open; the commentary includes this passage:

There were moments when I asked myself what this was all for. So much effort, and such high stakes, for what? The tournament was taking place against the backdrop of tremendous unrest in the United States—the unfathomable spread of a lethal disease, continuing protests against racial injustice, profound civic distrust, and soaring unemployment. What is the U.S. Open when it is sealed off from New York? What does a championship signify, if some of the top contenders don’t come? What does it mean if fans aren’t there to ratify it? What’s the value of sport right now?

Some of those questions are unanswerable, but not all. In most respects, the U.S. Open was a success. It happened safely. Two deserving champions were crowned. The quality of the play was, for the most part, remarkably good. And, by the end, something strange was happening, at least for me: the event seemed to become more meaningful, not less, for being so stripped away.

The New Yorker piece details the men's championship match—the final match of the tournament, the match perspective played the net and won.

I remember agreeing that this match became more meaningful for me than most previous US Open championships.

I had wondered, when the tournament decided to carry on without fans, whether the 2020 results would have an asterisk in people’s memory. Because of how it played out, it doesn't.

Tennis players are not supposed to get coaching or have any communication with the people in their player’s box; the player is out there alone, fighting himself and his opponent, often buoyed or rejected—especially in big matches on big stages—by the crowd. In this match, the isolation, the loneliness, was heightened to an extreme, and I really felt for them, felt the struggle, felt empathy.

Note: The Australian Open concluded today with an instant-classic match between Rafa Nadal and Daniil Medvedev.

 

something about Novak Djokovic and his 2022 Australian Open quest

The Australian Open starts next week. Heading into it, the big story is how Novak Djokovic's anti-vaccine stance is jeopardizing his Australian visa status. Djokovic is the top men's tennis player in the world now.

For a while, tennis had the Big Three—Federer, Nadal, and Djokovic, the youngest. But Djokovic, unlike Federer and Nadal, has never been a fan favorite (outside of Serbia, where he is loved, of course). Fans tend to root for Djokovic’s opponents.

Why he is disliked is sort of a mystery, and some sportswriters have explored the question. He actually seems to feed on the negativity during matches, though, and he will no doubt one day hold the record for winning the most Grand Slam tournaments. Over the last two years, with Federer and Nadal not playing as much, I noticed that fans seemed to finally start to come around to Djokovic. But right now, he is everywhere and for the wrong reasons, and he will be booed if he plays this tournament.

He won last year’s Australian Open, so he wants to defend his title. And if he won this tournament, it would be an incredible fuck you because he would win it in a country that did not want him there while pulling ahead of fan favorites and his rivals Nadal and Federer in the ranking for most Grand Slam tournaments won, thereby making him, effectively, the Greatest of All Time. Incredible.

His status is still in limbo, and he is running out of time to deliver maybe the biggest fuck you in sports history.