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Is Djokovic being prudent by playing Barcelona?

By Keshav Gopalan

MONTE-CARLO, MONACO - APRIL 19: Novak Djokovic of Serbia serves against Dominic Thiem of Austria during his men's singles 3rd round match on day five of the Rolex Monte-Carlo Masters at Monte-Carlo Sporting Club on April 19, 2018 in Monte-Carlo, Monaco. (Photo by Julian Finney/Getty Images)
MONTE-CARLO, MONACO - APRIL 19: Novak Djokovic of Serbia serves against Dominic Thiem of Austria during his men's singles 3rd round match on day five of the Rolex Monte-Carlo Masters at Monte-Carlo Sporting Club on April 19, 2018 in Monte-Carlo, Monaco. (Photo by Julian Finney/Getty Images) /
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Djokovic has had a year of lows and moderately optimistic highs. His performance in Monte Carlo was a stark contrast to the pitiful performance he posted in the sunshine double. He took the second best (arguably) current clay court to three sets and almost broke back in the decider.

However, Dominic Thiem got bageled once and won only two games in his straight-sets loss to the Monte-Carlo champion, Rafael Nadal.

While this doesn’t necessarily correlate to a guaranteed loss for Novak, the scenario isn’t the most promising one: Novak’s last quarterfinal was in Wimbledon last year. His last top 10 victory was against Thiem in Rome last year, who he lost to just a few days back. Is this cause for worry, or is this a slow crawl to the top?

Marian Vajda is the best news in a long time for the Djokovic Camp

When it was announced that he would be reuniting with his previous long-term coach, most fans were elated and for good reason. Within one year, Djokovic had fired his entire coaching team twice with no visible improvement in form.

Going back to basics, Djokovic re-teamed with Marian Vajda, his coach since 2006. The results speak for themselves, especially after the debacle that was the sunshine double. In the very short while they’ve been back together, Novak has gone from “running out of gas” to playing a two and a half hour match on clay against Dominic Thiem.

More importantly, Djokovic has started winning matches again. And you can see just how much it means to him to just be competitive again.

MONTE-CARLO, MONACO – APRIL 19: Novak Djokovic of Serbia reacts during his men’s singles match against Dominic Thiem of Austria on day five of the Rolex Monte-Carlo Masters at Monte-Carlo Sporting Club on April 19, 2018, in Monte-Carlo, Monaco. (Photo by Julian Finney/Getty Images)
MONTE-CARLO, MONACO – APRIL 19: Novak Djokovic of Serbia reacts during his men’s singles match against Dominic Thiem of Austria on day five of the Rolex Monte-Carlo Masters at Monte-Carlo Sporting Club on April 19, 2018, in Monte-Carlo, Monaco. (Photo by Julian Finney/Getty Images) /

Next: Can Nadal sweep the clay season?

His entry in Barcelona is a step for the better

This week has two ATP tournaments: An ATP 500 in Barcelona and an ATP 250 in Budapest, both on clay. The field in Budapest is quite obviously much tamer in comparison to the stacked draw in Barcelona. Novak could have repeated what he did last year before Wimbledon and taken part in a smaller tournament to build confidence.

Instead, he chose the more difficult route. Props to him, because not only does it mean that he’s up for the fight, it also means he’s starting to believe in himself and wants to put in work to get the match play required to play consistently.

All in all, this means good news for Novak and his fans. But most importantly, its good news for tennis, because in the two years that has seen Novak decline, it can be safe to assume that we’ve come to underappreciate the absolute ruthlessness and havoc he wrecked in his peak days.

Hopefully, more to come.

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