Limpag: Being Djokovic

Limpag: Being Djokovic

THE past few months haven’t been kind to Novak Djokovic. First, he tested positive for Covid-19 after organizing his own event without any social distancing measures, according to reports, forcing him to issue an apology.

Next, there was that breakaway professional group, which was lambasted by Roger Federer. Because of the formation of the group, his old comments about how players in the women’s tour don’t deserve to get the same prize money as those on the men’s tour were unearthed. Leading to more attacks at the world No. 1.

Those were comments made over two years ago. And a few days after saying that, he issued an apology and said the women deserve to get the same prize money as the men.

Then of course, there’s the latest. A temper tantrum in the US Open resulted in the Serbian, who is chasing grand slam No. 18, getting booted out unceremoniously. There’s no doubt that his hit was unintenional, but I think he salvaged his reputation a bit with his actions afterwards, especially when he told the umpire that he knows it would be tough for the umpire whatever call he makes.

And just like that, his chase for grand slam No. 18 this year is over, and it is unfortunate since he was 18-0 before the pandemic interrupted the tennis season.

I’ve grown to like Novak over the years. When he came up on tour, he was more known as the player with the funny impressions and often always, his early on-court interviews had him making impressions to the delight of the fans. That all ended when he acted negatively to an Andy Roddick remark and the American said that if Novak can dish out those impressions, he should be willing to receive snide remarks.

I remember after that episode, when he was asked to make an impression, Novak said he was stopping that.

And of course since then, tennis fans have seen his meteoric rise and becoming part of the Big 4 until it became just the Big 3. For this US Open, it was assumed that the title was his for the taking with Roger Federer sitting out the rest of the season and Rafael Nadal opting not to join the tournament.

That’s now over, of course, because of that split second when Novak let his frustration get to him. Can he still get to No. 18? I’m sure he can and at 33, he has a few more years on Nadal and Federer.

But with his exit though, it would be interesting to see who wins this year’s US Open and whether that win will allow some of the youngsters to get over that mighty hump and start collecting their own grand slams.

Trending

No stories found.

Just in

No stories found.

Branded Content

No stories found.
SunStar Publishing Inc.
www.sunstar.com.ph