Djokovic’s road to legendary
It was a sensation in London when Roger Federer beat Novak Djokovic in the league round-robin of the ATP Masters last week.
Federer’s tactical ability is what gave him that win but barely a week after Djokovic reversed the tide and in the right moment snatched away the jewel of 2015 the ATP Masters’ title.
The height of Djokovic’s vision and tactical adaptability is what makes him special and to be the world’s number one by a large margin in points not known in professional Tennis up to now. No doubt critics predict that he will leave the game as the ‘greatest ever’.
The hardest challenge in Tennis is to play it tactically and it is never a constant. This is something most players know but only a few ever address it and those who do, get to be in the top 150 of the world.
The adaptability that Djokovic displayed to beat maestro Federer just a few days from the last defeat, is a lesson too precious to ignore.
Difference between a match and title
Germany is well known for winning Football Championships. It is a country where Football is very nearly a religion. Every match for the title of Europe and the World if lost is segmented and analysed in every corner of the country for days on.
In this regard a sentiment expressed by famous German footballer, Rainer Bonhof in a TV interview was very valid. He said to the effect that German teams do not fair that well in the early stages of tournament but ‘evolve and adapt’ well to win because of their discipline to change according to the challenge.
In a way versatility of change in Football could be achieved by changing the player composition of the team but not in an individual game like Tennis. All the same the principle of winning in sports comes very much from the players’ capability to adapt to challenges.
Adapting to every match and to every change of situation is one of the salient aspects of the success in Tennis. Without this ability a tournament cannot be won. Players in Davis-Cup and similar events have the possibility to win one or two matches and create good results but winning tournaments involves having to win up to seven rounds sometimes.
This means winning a match can be achieved by many, but only a few succeed in winning tournaments. This is what counts in ranking.
When Federer beat Djokovic earlier this week, he kept on changing tactics and it was successful. When watching the final match it looked like to me that Djokovic pre-empted Federer’s attacks and was ready with the shots to counter with deadly accuracy and speed.
Djokovic also changed the game to which Federer had too little to offer as resistance or answers. Djokovic considerably increased the percentage of his presence on the base-line and in-court giving Federer very little time to recover.
It did increase Djokovic’s unforced error rate but increased the success of his passing shots considerably. This made the difference in the compilation of points to wrap up games.
In the second set Federer took Djokovic out of his comfort zone a good many times but it was not good enough to compile a game and break Djokovic’s service advantage.
The final between these two produced unbelievable Tennis. They are two of the most complete, dedicated and talented exponents of the game today.
ATP’s Tennis tradition
In the three decades that ATP came to being, it has developed a strong and worthy tradition to supplement the image of Tennis. All their activities are player oriented.
In the London Masters’ final the two groups of the league were named after two of the outstanding Tennis players in their time – USA’s Stan Smith and Romania’s Ilie Nastase.
The latter was such an attraction in his time and must be considered one of the most talented and innovative Tennis players of all times. ATP ceremonies too are made up of players. The only ones who speak in them are the players. Some lessons for Asia, here.
This year’s ATP calendar and the events globally were praised by all the participants. The World’s number one and the winner of the 2015 Masters Final made a special mention of it.
On the whole this year Tennis was vibrant, dramatic and very challenging. The multi-tiered events of ATP accommodated players in the top ten of the world to deep down as 1500.
This aspect gave a clear cut ladder to the talented and dedicated players to go up. ATP has been transparent and has the trust of every segment of the global sports society.
Their efforts to address the value of sports and remain zero tolerant to abuse, has placed Tennis to be one of the respected sports in the world.
Time for players’ holidays
Professional players will have a rest period from now until the 2016 season begins in the last week of December 2015 in Australia.
Djokovic undoubtedly will do everything to remain at the top and Federer will try to extend his late spring, while others too will make their plans to reach higher in 2016. World Tennis is alive and active now reigned by the Serbian Novak Djokovic.
George Paldano, Former int. player; Accredited Coach of Germany; National, Davis-Cup, Federation Cup coach–. gptennis.ceylon@gmail.com