Hey... Novak Djokovic; what’s going on?
Preoccupied with a change in job meant that I wasn’t staying as up-to-date as I would like, especially when it came to Tennis.
I’m back, and I’ve done my research. Here’s what I noticed.
Firstly, Tennis balls are predominantly green. Just want to clear that up. Depending on the actual brand, the colour may be slightly interchangeable, but lime-green is what I see (and I’m usually right!).
Secondly, Maria Sharapova is back. I don’t really know how I feel about this. Actually, that's a lie. I do know how I feel. Once a cheater, always a cheater.
Also, Serena Williams is back.
The main thing that has stood out to me is the men's ATP Tennis rankings. I will admit, I hadn’t been keeping up with the latest hard-court tennis season so I was shocked to see Del Potro creep up the rankings and Kevin Anderson sitting inside of the top 10.
I was most shocked to see how Novak Djokovic had dropped to number 12. I looked at his 2018 results. Miami Open 2nd round loss to Benoit Paire. BNP Paribas Open 2nd round loss to Taro Daniel. Australian Open 4th round loss to Hyeon Chung. He has only played three tournaments this year, and the best result was a 4th round appearance which is unlike the Djokovic we have seen in recent years.
Djokovic has had an unfortunate time with his elbow and because of this and multiple surgeries, it seems as though he just can’t recover and get back to winning matches.
As well as the elbow injury, Djokovic was dealt two more blows in the form of losing both Radek Stepanek and Andre Agassi from his coaching team.
Apparently, both coaching splits were amicable but there was clearly something going on behind the scenes. So my question is; what’s really going on?
Will he make it back into the top 10 and most importantly; will he be able to win another grand slam? We know how difficult it can be to regain confidence again after a long-term injury but is it too late for Djokovic?
In my opinion, it would take incredible mental and physical strength to get back to his best, and with the loss of two key team members (Agassi and Stepanek) he needs to hit the ground running (literally) and bring on clay specialists.
We are about to enter the clay season, and with the likes of Nadal, Federer, Dimitrov and Cilic in good form, Djokovic is going to need all the help he can get.