by Louise Belcourt
Melbourne, Australia – When Novak Djokovic entered the draw in this year’s first grand slam, no one knew what to expect. Having not played an official match since retiring with a right elbow injury in the Wimbledon quarter finals in July, he was completely underdone in terms of match play.
Although, we all recall how Roger Federer also had 6 months off after Wimbledon the previous year and was able to re-capture the form and title that had been so elusive for many years. So being much younger, only 30, and with such an impeccable record of 6 Australian Open titles (only Roy Emerson has as many titles), he was still a strong title contender in many eyes.
In the first 3 rounds of the Australian Open he had little trouble, only dropping a set to Gael Monfils in the 3rd round amidst heatwave conditions in the middle of the day.
In the 4th round he was pitted against the youngest player left in the draw, 21 year old Hyeon Chung from South Korea. The world 58 was into his first ever grand slam 4th round. The match started ominously for Djokovic, going down a double break 0-4, but he clawed his way back to a tie-breaker which he lost 7-4.
Concerns started to mount when the former world number 1 called the trainer at the start of the 2nd set to work on his injured elbow. The second set then followed a similar pattern to the first, with Djokovic going down an early break 0-3, only to level back at 5-5 then get broken in his last service game to lose the set 7-5.
The third set started positively for the Serbian breaking Chung’s serve, but was immediately broken back. The set went into a tiebreaker which Chung won 7-3, to become the first South Korean player to make a grand slam quarter final.
To take nothing away from the brilliance, determination and toughness of his opponent, Djokovic was far from his best. 9 double faults compared to 2 aces, 26 winners compared to 44 unforced errors. There were so many long rallies, in which Chung seem to have all the answers, running and sliding across court and punishing the ball down the line or across court for winners off both wings. In contrast Djokovic groundstrokes were not as quick and penetrating as we had come to expect, and unexpectedly simple errors flew off the racket. His serve speed was down, and with his elbow injury causing a change of service motion, he threw in 9 double faults (some in crucial points like the tiebreaker).
Consequently, the match seemed to be derailed through the Serbs injury. Anyone who has ever nursed an injury knows how frustrating and debilitating it can be. Plus, competing against a player that got so many balls back, returned serve exceptionally well, didn’t give away any cheap points, hit winners off both wings, and basically played like an uninjured “Djokovic”, was a mammoth task. And without being able to hit his usual dominant serve and groundstrokes it was simply too bigger ask.
Clearly disappointed with the results, Djokovic gave insight into the seriousness of his elbow injury post-match.
“Unfortunately, it’s not great. Kind of end of the first set it started hurting more. So, yeah, I had to deal with it till the end of the match… It was obviously compromising my serve. That, of course, is a big shot, especially against Chung, who returns well, gets a lot of balls back.”
He continued “It’s frustrating, of course, when you have that much time and you don’t heal properly. But it is what it is. There is some kind of a reason behind all of this.”
“I have to reassess everything with my team, medical team, coaches and everybody, scan it, see what the situation is like. Last couple weeks I played a lot of tennis. Let’s see what’s happening inside.”
So what will the future hold for one the greats of the game? With the injury reducing his power to penetrate the ball fast and deep into the court, Djokovic has lost his winning invincibility. Can he get back to the lofty heights of 2 years ago, when he was seemingly unbeatable and held all 4 grand slam titles at once?
Will we ever see him back as title favourite for a grand slam? Or are his glory days over for good?
All I know for sure is that he will never stop trying.
Scoop Malinowski · January 25, 2018 at 1:06 pm
Djokovic’s injury also looked suspect. Chung’s brilliant play overshadows all talk of any elbow injury. Like John McEnroe once said, “It’s been scientifically proven that everything hurts more when you’re losing.” I wish he would say that quote more frequently.
catherine · January 25, 2018 at 1:30 pm
Is Djokovic still sticking to his gluten free diet ? General medical opinion now is that, unless someone suffers from coeliac disease, this kind of diet is not a good thing. Andy Murray apparently tried it for a while and had to give up because he felt permanently tired.
If I were Djoko I would chuck all the quack medicine and other odd regimes overboard and eat and live normally, for an athlete that is. Might help his elbow heal too.
Scoop Malinowski · January 25, 2018 at 1:39 pm
Catherine; Chung was hitting heavy shots for three sets. Why didn’t those shots injure the elbow worse? Why did Djokovic try to win the third set to try to win the fourth and fifth sets and try to advance to the next rounds with an injured elbow? Or was the elbow a phantom fabricated alibi to explain away a very disappointing loss? Not buying this elbow injury at all. If it was truly injured he would have retired after the second set vs Chung. But he tried to mount a furious, desperate comeback win which was so impressively nullified by Chung.
catherine · January 25, 2018 at 2:20 pm
Maybe his endurance is affected because of his crank diet. So he needs some excuse. But really, I’ve no idea.
Scoop Malinowski · January 25, 2018 at 5:30 pm
Catherine; I still say Djokovic is a very very good tennis player. But he lost his aura of invincibility and his self belief that he is THE BEST over a year ago. He may never get it back again.
Duke Carnoustie · January 25, 2018 at 11:24 pm
Djoko lost twice to Kyrgios last year and was destroyed by Thiem in RG. Now Chung takes him out. The NextGen is clearly not afraid of Djoker.
I think Djoker sees that Father Time may soon write him off.
Joe Blow · January 26, 2018 at 9:23 am
Not the biggest Djokovic fan, but jeez, give the guy a break. He’s a 12 time Major champion, tied for 4th in freaking HISTORY, and he’s coming back from an elbow injury(big deal for tennis player) and 6th months off. Did you expect him to run the table? He also didn’t have a lot of points to protect from last year’s AO, so less pressure
This site is funny. You win a challenger match or two, and your destined to win Majors. A guy loses 4 and 4 to a top ten player, on this site, that guy is playing top ten tennis, it’s never the top guy played like a top 100 player that day..
Give Djokovic 6 months to work his way back, then toast him if he’s not back near the top of tennis. But you can’t just wipe out his history. This site buried Fed when he turned 30 too, how’d that work out for those prognosticators.
Scoop Malinowski · January 26, 2018 at 5:44 pm
Joe, it’s not looking so good for Djokovic now. The personal issues of infidelity, the loss of confidence, the lost aura of invincibility and younger stronger better players are now emerging. The game might have passed Djokovic by, as it has Sharapova.