Djokovic’s sprint since he changed in 2011: 20 Grand Slams for 12 by Nadal and 4 by Federer

Novak Djokovic, the man with the tendency to often give in to his passions, wasn’t yesterday’s ‘Nole’ of runaway screams, or when he fully felt his 21st major and his 7th Wimbledon when the fight died down. That’s his face someone is relieved rather than overjoyedwhich turned out to be a necessity from the pleasure of winning a Grand Slam for his entire year of avoidance and his reluctance to be vaccinated.

In fact, on the Wimbledon turf the Belgrade tennis player began to feel real peace in 2011, the year of his mutation, of his conversion to number one. He celebrated that 2011 by winning in Australia and not losing until June, in the Roland Garros semifinals against Roger Federer. And, coming, his first Wimbledon final -against a Rafa Nadal defending the 2010 title-, Djokovic When I first was.

The ‘Big Three’ race

Djokovic’s ‘head to head’ with Nadal and Federer in ‘Grand Slam’

Nadal Federer

Prior to 2011 0-5 1-5

After 2011 8-7 9-2

But it was in that victory against Manacorí when ‘Nole’ eliminated his true complexity, the one that always trapped him in the Grand Slams: I haven’t beaten Rafa to a ‘big’, which has frustrated him in the past five precedents, including the US Open final in 2010. With Federer, things haven’t been better: with the 2011 Roland Garros semis, the Swiss sent him off. in 5 of 6 direct rivalries with the ‘Majors’.

Until 2011 rose to prominence, Novak Djokovic was a winner loser. More than combined, he was seen trapped at number 3, barely bothering Nadal and Federer, who had no options to meddle in their rising Grand Slams accounts: just 1 from Serb to 10 from Rafa and 16 from Roger, far from current balance, including 22 by Nadal, 21 by Novak and 20 by Federer. The age, 23 and a half years, compared especially to Nadal’s 24 and a half, is forcing him and for many he is out of time to enter that race.

Since he first appeared in the Majors in 2005, he has only appeared three ends: the 2008 Australian Open he won against Tsonga and the 2007 and 2010 US Open defeats against Federer and Nadal. ‘Nole’ is a poor tennis player, who is inherently underdog when the pressure is on him and crippled by repeated physical problems. The frustration of not being who he was or who others expected made him think to shrink in 2010 after falling in the Roland Garros quarters against Jürgen Melzer as he admitted a few years later.

But he rebelled in 2011 and declared he could deal as the equivalent of Nadal and Federer. Her head and legs started to flow, but it all started in her stomach. The Bosnian nutritionist Igor Cetojevic he discovered his gluten allergy and eliminated it from his diet and that was the decisive change that revolved around his career as ‘Nole’ himself was identified in his autobiography. Newsletter five kilos and gave birth to the skinny and inexhaustible Djokovic, the endless rubber man who reached out to everyone, and that physical freshness penetrated his confidence and gave him more aggressiveness in decisive moments. It was as if a creature that had undergone a planned mutation in a laboratory, ‘Nole’, had become an automaton programmed only according to the needs of the party, a creature that – certain outbursts of madness on the side-, neither feels nor suffers immune to injuries and permeable on improvements to his tennis.

He monopolized three of the four greats in 2011 with the exception of Roland Garros -reserved for Rafa -, and since 2011 that same sprint in the race for the greats has been amazing: 20 Grand Slams for 12 by Rafa Nadal and just 4 for Roger Federer, at the rate of almost two ‘Majors’ per year, for one from Manacorí and one every three years from Basel. Although Nadal -with 10 majors from 2005 to 2011 and 12 from 2011 to 2022-, endured change of trend, Federer, who is now also conditioned with his battered knee, has risen from career rents to be the best. In fact, whatever the balance, if it came to the numbers of the last 11 years, Roger would be closer to the 3 Grand Slams of Murray and Wawrinka the 20 by Djokovic and the 12 by Nadal.

The ‘head to head’ numbers represent another powerful argument for climate change that forced ‘Nole’ to also meddle in the contest for being the best in history. If with Rafa he had a negative record in the ‘Grand Slam’ before the metamorphosis of 0-5 and 0-1 in the ‘Majors’ finals, the overall balance is balanced with 8 wins and 7 losses and 4 wins and 4 losses in the finals. If Federer’s record was 1-5 and 0-1 in the finals before 2011, ‘head to head’ would have been a 2-9 and a 0-4 in the battles for the title, mainly remembered the 2019 Wimbledon final, where ‘robot’ Djokovic returned all the unreachable thrown at him by a Federer who that day embroidered his offensive and plastic tennis and did not convert to his ninth Wimbledon two match balls that it got.

Since his conversion in 2011, this period has shown that Djokovic dominates when he is well, especially at the Australian Open where he has not been able to beat Roger and Rafa since. however, with Nadal is another song. Aside from racking up another Grand Slam -22 vs. 21- by Djokovic, the player from Manacor has balanced the majors ’balance since 2017, with 8 for 9 by‘ Nole ’after the balance between 2011 and 2016 indicated a clear 10 to 5 in favor of Serbian. All this, the result of his muted ambition and his continued evolution in tennis, and despite his injuries. Not to forget that, although he only beat him twice in the Paris -headquarters of 2015 and semifinals of 2021, the one from Belgrade did not relinquish Rafa to his status as Roland Garros landowner a 5-2 favor over Nadal, who beat Novak in the 2014 and 2020 finals. Another good fact is that only Manacor was able to win both in Federer’s best season and in Djokovic’s best season.

Djokovic’s fate with injuries

Novak Djokovic’s acceleration this decade also responds to his fate with injuries that have committed suicide instead of Federer and Nadal. Armored his physique, ‘Nole’ just had to stop six months in 2017 -the only year of this series in which he did not celebrate any major-, due to an injury to his right elbow for which he was operated on. He replaced what could have caused that damage — his service mechanics—, and since then he’s had no problems. Just disappeared due to injury 2017 US Open this time, while Nadal was out of the six ‘greats’, and Federer, to nine seven between 2021 and a 2022 where he will also not be included in the US Open.

The 2020 US Open that Rafa decided not to play to prepare Roland Garros in the year of the pandemic calendar reformulation was not taken into account, as well as the 2022 Australian Open not being played by the Serbs. for not being vaccinated and Roland Garros in 2017 and 2018 that Roger gave up by prioritizing Wimbledon preparation. Federer’s surprising and happy return in 2017, which after his first long break due to injury cut short the avoidance of the ‘good’ of five year period with two titles in Australia (2017 and 2018) and one at Wimbledon (2017), he inspires his fans for Roger’s return, which when he is likely to return in September in the Laver Cup he will already have 41 years. Curiosity also plotted the possible changes he might show in his tennis, because, over time, Federer did not live without knowledge of evolution and further radicalized his offensive tennis, with new things like his climbing the net after the second serve.

Wimbledon saw Nole proclaimed number one in 2011 and so on He was seen reborn in 2018. is Balkan’s first win in a Grand Slam after an elbow episode in an edition that could have caused him despair after more than a year without winning if he lost to Nadal in the semifinals which he benefited from roof coverage of Center Court. The mystery of Wimbledon is always changing when the most losses since 2011 have accelerated Djokovic, under the uncertainty of a future conditioned by his vaccine resistance and with certainty, both in the titles and in the know how to be in court, Nadal was still ahead.