Djokovic has ditched his peace and love routine, so he is the man to beat
The Serbian looks rejuvenated – if he wins in New York, he will deserve to be considered in the conversation about who is the greatest player of all time
Just five months ago, Novak Djokovic lost to Benoit Paire in a bizarrely flat display in Miami. Discussing the match afterwards in the television studio, I said that Novak needed to reunite with his old mentor Marian Vajda, because he looked to be stuck on a road to nowhere.
This turned out to be one of my sounder suggestions. After a three-week break, Djokovic showed up in Monte Carlo with Vajda back at his side for the first time in almost a year. Straightaway, the results began to pick up.
He took a while to reach full operating temperature, but since the start of the grass-court season, Novak has lost only twice. The first defeat came in the final at Queen’s in June, where he had match point against Marin Cilic. The second was inflicted by Stefanos Tsitsipas in Toronto, in a contest that was particularly unusual because Novak – arguably the best returner in the history of the game – was unable to break serve.
Either side of that, Djokovic has been infallible. His fourth Wimbledon title put him behind only Roger Federer, Pete Sampras and Bjorn Borg at the All England Club in the list of The Championships’ all-time men’s winners. Then, last week, he beat Federer in the Cincinnati final, so becoming the first man to collect the full set of nine ATP Masters 1000 events.
After a run like that, Djokovic has to be the favourite to win another major in New York next month – a result that would carry his overall tally to 14 slams, level with Sampras. When you consider that Roy Emerson’s record of 12 stood for 33 years, how amazing that Sampras – the man who finally overcame it – could soon find himself relegated to fourth position on the leaderboard.
At this rate, Djokovic is on track to put himself back in the conversation for the Greatest of All Time. Yes, he is still seven slams behind Federer, in first place. But remember what he can do when he is on his game.
In 2011-12, he won three majors in a row. In 2015-16, he extended that to a scarcely believable four in a row – an achievement that has yet to receive the acclaim it deserves.
Since reconnecting with Vajda, Novak has rediscovered his strengths in both a technical and mental sense.
During the period when Andre Agassi and Radek Stepanek made up his coaching team, he could barely find the court with his backhand, traditionally his best shot. But now his two-hander is scorching a path up the line again.
The serve is also coming together after the elbow injury that afflicted him for a couple of seasons. In the Cincinnati final, Djokovic averaged 98mph on second serve, fractionally faster than Federer’s 97mph, and the right mix was also there: slices and kickers to keep Roger guessing all the time.
Most importantly of all, though, the “peace and love” approach fostered by Novak’s so-called guru Pepe Imaz has gone, and the fire is back in his belly.
We saw it at Wimbledon, where he responded aggressively to the partisan crowds that heckled him during his wins over Kyle Edmund in the third round, and then Kevin Anderson in the final.
This bloody-minded attitude will be very useful in New York, where the fans are right in your face and the shouts ring out between points. I will never forget the 2015 final, which found Novak facing not only Federer, but also the 24,000 people crammed into Arthur Ashe Stadium. It was one of the noisiest tennis crowds I have ever experienced, so biased that you might have thought Roger was playing a home Davis Cup tie. But Novak sucked it up and took the title in four sets anyway.
The ‘Big Three’ are still the men to beat in New York this year, more than a decade after they first held the top three spots in the world rankings.
I would put Rafael Nadal as the next-most-likely winner, and Federer in third place, because I feel that Roger’s confidence has been rocked a little by his loss to Anderson at Wimbledon.
Federer restricted his hard-court preparations for the US Open to just a single tournament, the Cincinnati Masters. This reduced schedule is probably the right thing for his body, but it restricts his ability to build momentum and match toughness.
As for the rest, the next generation are beginning to make strides, and I saw a stat that the average age of the top 50 is falling significantly for the first time in more than 30 years. But they are still not ready to win slams.
Maybe Tsitsipas can be the man who emerges from the pack. At 20, he is still a little raw, but he is performing strongly on every surface.
Sascha Zverev has been tipped for so long as the next serial champion, and has already achieved great things on the ATP tour. But the best-of-five format continues to confound him. Even in Paris this year, where he reached the quarter-finals of a slam for the first time, Zverev limped his way there with three straight five-set wins.
For me bringing Ivan Lendl on board as his full-time coach – rather than just working with him occasionally between tournaments, which is what he was doing previously – was a no-brainer. Zverev’s problem is not so different to the one Andy Murray used to have: he backs off when he is under pressure.
Andy’s hiring of Lendl was the masterstroke that transformed his career. Sascha may now be on the verge of making the same breakthrough. Watch live and on-demand multicourt coverage of this year’s US Open only on Amazon Prime Video, from Monday.
At Wimbledon he reacted aggressively to crowd heckles – this will serve him well in New York