Novak Djokovic: 10 Down, But Can He Catch Federer?

Sep 13, 2015; New York, NY, USA; Novak Djokovic of Serbia kisses the US Open Trophy after beating Roger Federer of Switzerland in the men

US Open Player of Day Fourteen: Novak Djokovic

As if the ATP tour needed any more consistency, Novak Djokovic won the US Open over Roger Federer in four sets. The title is his 2nd US Open title, his 3rd grand slam title for the year and his 10th career grand slam championship.

If he maintains this form, does it really matter that he can’t win Cincinnati? Or the French Open?

Although the victory was achieved by some very stable and intelligent play, and is very deserved, his performance this past fortnight may be his weakest of all his grand slam runs. Indeed, he appeared vulnerable against Roberto Bautista-Agut in the fourth round and Feliciano Lopez in the quarterfinals, dropping sets to each.

In truth, had it not been for Roger Federer’s well-recorded inability to convert on break point opportunities, Djokovic may have finished the tournament with his second grand slam final loss for the year.

After gliding through the first set relatively easily, Djokovic dropped the second set after Federer claimed an elusive break of serve.

Federer took this momentum into the third set, earning multiple break point opportunities against Djokovic while up 4-3. The Swiss failed to convert and allowed Djokovic to break his serve in the next game. The Serb then served out the set.

In the fourth set, a Djokovic win appeared all but an inevitably as he quickly broke Federer twice to go up 5-2. Now desperate, Federer broke back to 5-4 and held break points to get the match back on serve. But after oddly running around a simple backhand return and spraying an error, and playing a loose ball in a neutral rally, Federer essentially gift wrapped the victory for Djokovic.

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The match was certainly messy, only rarely reaching the peaks of the 2014 Wimbledon final between Djokovic and Federer. Federer delivered easily his worst performance of the fortnight – not surprisingly, considering his beyond par efforts in the first six rounds – as his groundstrokes were no longer well placed and his serve mediocre (he only won 46% of points on second serve – an area he usually excels in). Djokovic was also less than stellar, striking 37 uncharacteristic errors to 35 winners.

But none of this is to take away from what Djokovic achieved in New York. Perhaps the reason for Federer’s poor performance was the consistency of Djokovic’s returns or his typically excellent court coverage. And despite a few too many errors, Djokovic was excellent in regards to most of his game. He also had to deal with the audacious New York crowd that constantly pleaded for a Federer win. For someone who is prone to interacting with crowds, his ability to remain cool and collected in a high-pressure situation were admirable.

After the match, Djokovic attributed much of his success and joy to his recent fatherhood and marriage. Indeed, it’s remarkable that he has been able to claim three of the last four slams with such a demanding life. Of his many years on tour, 2015 has been Djokovic’s most successful year at the slams, surpassing his 2011 collection of three slams and a semifinal – ironically, his 2015 French Open final appearance was the improvement. On top of that, he’s won four more Masters titles, and reached three finals.

– Can Novak Djokovic Be The Greatest Of All Time? –

With this latest success comes the question of whether Djokovic can challenge Federer for the moniker of ‘Greatest of All Time’. With 10 slams thus far, Novak ‘only’ requires 7 more to match the Swiss. It’s certainly a daunting task. Djokovic doesn’t win grand slams with powerful groundstrokes like Stan Wawrinka, or Federer. Instead, he races and glides across court, contorting his body into impossible angles, and tracking down his opponent’s balls to agitate them into making errors. It’s a game based on overwhelming suffocation, but not overwhelming power. It will be a hard game to maintain as he ages and his body becomes less capable. And if Djokovic can somehow win every grand slam until Wimbledon 2017, he would reach the age of 30 before winning his 17th slam. Is it possible to maintain his scrappy for such a long (minimum) time? Given his 2015 campaign, anything is possible.

For now though, Novak Djokovic is obviously our Player of the Day for Day Fourteen of the US Open, not only for winning his third slam for 2015 and 10th for his career, but for putting himself in a position to possibly be the greatest of all time.