Can Djokovic now seize his chance to be the Goat?
Win today and Novak’s in line to leapfrog Rafa and Roger
I N THE wake of Fri day ni ght’s shattering French Open defeat, Rafael Nadal cast doubt on whether he would play at Wimbledon.
The suggestion, made to Spanish media, may just have reflected his disappointment in t he i mmediate aftermath. Or it could be a signal that the deposed champion is coming to accept that Novak Djokovic will win the race among the Big Three, and end up with the most Grand Slam titles.
The 34-year-old Serb will today go for No 19 at Roland Garros when he takes on Stefanos Tsitsipas in what will be the Greek’s first final at a major.
A weary Nadal, who turned 35 this month, seemed less than enthused about the prospect of moving on to an even stricter bubble that will be in place for Wimbledon. He certainly will not be playing a warm-up event.
‘I don’t know what I will do, after two intense months in a positive clay season without having achieved the final goal,’ he said. ‘The body usually suffers a slump after so much effort. Wimbledon this year is in two weeks, it’s different to when I was 25 years old.
‘I need to digest it all, be calm, take a few days off and go home. We have been locked up in Paris for two-and-a-half weeks and I need to breathe a little.’
While Nadal will enjoy taking the sea air back in Majorca, he cannot breathe easier in terms of the over-arching race. He, and everyone else in the locker room, will know that if Djokovic cannot be stopped at Roland Garros then it is going to be mighty tough to halt him elsewhere.
Nadal and Roger Federer, 39, are stuck on 20 Grand Slam titles. Given that it is extremely likely that the Serb will wi n a t least one of Wimbledon and the US Open, it is eminently possible t hat he will be on 21 by the end of the season. While the Swiss might still be the biggest threat to that at Wimbledon, their last line of defence today is Tsitsipas. Twelve years younger than the world No 1, and having finished his own five-set semi-final earlier on Friday, he ought to be the more sprightly of the two. Yet this is nothing new for Djokovic, even though he compared beating Nadal in what was an extraordinary display to climbing Mount Everest. ‘It’s not the first time that I play an epic semi-final in a Grand Slam and then I have to come back in less than 48 hours and play finals,’ he pointed out. ‘My recovery abilities have been pretty good t hroughout my career. Obviously my physiotherapist will try to do everything possible so that I can be fresh.’
Neither of the two men to have beaten Nadal at Roland Garros — Robin Soderling in 2009 and Djokovic in 2015 — have gone on to win the title, but that is likely to change today. Not that world No 5 Tsitsipas is an accidental finalist. He has emerged as the tour’s most consistent player this season and compiled a 39-8 match record.
He is the best and most rounded of the challengers to the Big Three and a joy to watch, with a game for all surfaces that should one day see him emerge as a multiple Grand Slam winner.
In last October’s displaced French Open he took Djokovic to five sets in the semi-final, but the dynamic in a final is different. We saw that at February’s Australian Open, where the Serb took on the rampantly in-form Daniil Medvedev. The Russian started brightly and looked to have the champion rattled towards the end of the first set.
Then he became nervous as the match tightened and the favourite ran away after seeing off the early challenge.
There is definitely something different about Tsitsipas, a thoughtful 22- year- old whose strongest terrain is probably the clay. He came close to beat i ng Djokovic a t last month’s Italian Open.
‘I’m r e a l l y happy wit h myself,’ said the Greek. ‘I’ve shown good discipline. I’ve been progressive. I’m looking forward to leaving my entire body on the court.’
The chances remain loaded towards Djokovic emerging with 19 by the end, and within sight of sealing the greatest- of- all- time debate by sheer weight of statistics.
As Eurosport analyst and former French Open champion Mats Wilander observed: ‘It gets to the point where you can’t overlook these numbers. We have to start talking about the Goat.’