A Tennis Balls Follower Rants On ATP Men’s Tennis • Chris D. Loves Novak Djokovic

By Chris D
Let me start by saying Djokovic is my man. I am a member of several tennis groups online and I am well aware of his haters and why most Fedal (Federer/Nadal) fans don’t like him. His perceived character flaws do not bother me.

Smashing a racquet every now and then, getting fired
up and angry and trolling a hostile crowd always makes him play better, some of his antics like clowning Ben Shelton with his dumb phone antic thing when he beat him at the US Open last fall…all of it is part of who he is, for better or worse. He’s also been in so so many situations with hostile crowds throughout his career that he seems to naturally play that villain role o well compared to the universally loved Federer and Nadal.

Everyone has their opinions on the never-ending goat debate but for me the numbers and stats just don’t lie, and they all say Novak is the GOAT.  Like we always have to point out to Fedal fans it’s not popularity or style, it’s not one surface but everything he’s done. To come up under Federer and Nadal, the two other greatest players ever, and to eventually outlast and surpass them and recently have the year he had last year at 36-years old is incredible.

He’s the only one from his generation taking on these young guns and beating them still on the biggest stages. After all the drama with Covid, not being vaxed, being deported from his best Slam in Australia etc., etc. and to come back an do what he did was impressive. I don’t agree with how he handled that whole situation, but you have to respect that he stuck to his beliefs and never gave in. He then came back on tour and crushed it and schooled these young guns for the most part at 36 years old.  

Meanwhile, flash back to Madrid clay 2022 where a young Alcaraz makes his mark beating Nadal and Djokovic to win that tournament. At that point it was becoming very clear how talented he was and what a bright future he has. He would go on to win the 2022 US Open and gain #1 status although Novak wasn’t allowed to play and lost a ton of points. Sinner should have won that semifinal match and had a match point but he got through him and went onto win his first slam. To me, he was still likeable at that point.

He was fun to watch and not nearly as obnoxious as I feel he is now with the constant fist pumping , screaming “Vamos” after every point and what seems to be louder and louder grunting these days. The constant chatter with Juan Carlos and his box after every point was getting ridiculed as well. This carried over in 2023, when he lost the French Open semi-final to Nole and I think it was around this point when he seemed to start talking openly in the press more and more about his ambitions of over-taking Novak, being #1 again at all costs, he seemed to be getting obsessed with Novak, beating Novak, stopping him from his goals etc. I started to really dislike this when I heard him talk like this. He won Queens on grass and played well which set up his run at Wimbledon where he met Djokovic in the final.

This was where it all turned for me. I obviously wanted Novak to win as he was still chasing history at that point. But as we’ve seen in the past when Nole has a huge history-making match to win, he usually chokes. He’s done it twice in the past with the Nole slam, etc. and this was another one of those occasions. The pressure was huge on him and being the seven-time defending champ playing the young hungry lion in Alcaraz. 

When Novak is on and in peak form, he beats anyone at anytime imo. He played that first set like the champ he is but would go on to squander that second set tie breaker and then he was in a dog fight. He would slip up in the 5th with some very loose play and Alcaraz went up a break and pulled it
out with some very courageous play. I feel he won the match but with history on the line again I felt like Djoker choked.

Anyway, my dislike really kicked in with what was to come post Wimbledon with Alcaraz. The media hype and hysteria after last summer was just insane. Every tennis media platform just went crazy. Every day, there was a comparison to the big 3. Nike called it “The Alcaraz Era” the $ poured in,the sponsorships took off which they always do when there is a new big star but, with him, they just went so over the top it seemed. You had people like BJK saying “he will be the best ever” and boy did she get flamed for that.  It seemed like somewhere already handing him slams he hasn’t yet won. The daily stats comparing him to the big 3’s achievements at age 20 is like they are so desperate to make him the next goat.

Meanwhile, throughout all the hype and unrealistic expectations that the media and tennis world were placing on Alcaraz, he started to drink the Koolaid too. To me he lost that innocent, likeable personality after Wimbedon it all went to his head,. He spouted off constantly in the press about being #1. He even said “best ever ” and was always on this Novak kick. He once admitted after last summer Cincy final  “all I do is think about Djokovic in practice”  blah, blah, blah. Djoker was clearly living rent free in his head.

After Cincy last summer when he lost, his obsession was clear. He would go onto lose 10 tournaments after Wimbledon 2023 including not defending his US Open title. Meddy took him out and he couldn’t do much at the ATP finals where Novak beat him again. The media wasn’t quite so keen to highlight this downfall and It became obvious that the tennis world rushed it a bit with all the praise and expectations. He was starting to look very overhyped just as recently as his exit at the 2024 AO. I was not complaining because I could not stand the hype anyway and all the fawning since last summer, so I have been very vocal on tennis media platforms about exposing hat hype along with others Djokovic fans…were a bit crazy yes and die hard but so are Fedal fans but that’s a whole other conversation on those three. I will say Federer was always my favorite up until around 2015/16. Nadal will always be the king of clay.

No one is touching his records on dirt but Nole has the #s that are no longer arguable for Fedal fans even though they still try.

So back to Alcaraz. Here we are in April and he just found himself for the first time, since last summer, winning a tournament at IW. He looked great there and was in dominant form. I am not so much of a hater to not give him credit. When he is on, he’s a beast. I don’t really know what happened to Sinner in that 2nd and 3rd set. He has been all the rage since AO and rightfully so. He’s been unbeatable, pretty much, since last year’s Davis Cup and to me he is so likeable and humble. I know he fell during that 2nd set, and he didn’t seem right after it from what I could tell. I only saw the highlights. Let me say I am a big Sinner fan at this point. He, along with Alcaraz, will be at the top of the game for many, many years, and once Novak is gone, they will have the biggest rivalry I think which is already been quite exciting. They are tied at 4/4 I still don’t care for Alcaraz, but he is extremely talented. He’s a bit of a show boater but always entertaining, if I could just tolerate all the grunting. His retriever style is very Nadal, so we’ll see if his body holds up down the road with that aggressive style. Nadal is nearly done, and I thought that was pretty classless that he showed up for that exhibition in IW, grabbed his check and then literally withdrew the next day claiming his form was not up to par.

adal and Alcaraz seem particularly $ hungry, charging $150k lessons, ridiculous entry fees from Carlos, etc. I get it though. Novak showed up to UCLA and hit with students and I didn’t see any charges for that. There were a ton of fans outraged with Nadal I don’t think that was a good look for him at all. Can’t imagine how the the people who bought night tickets felt.

Anyway, I’m looking forward to Djoker getting back but it seems like his head is in not yet in the game this year. That AO final was horrendous for him, even though Sinner played out-of-his mind tennis. In the first two sets, I don’t even know who that person playing those 1st two sets because that was not Novak. Have never seen him play that bad especially at his
strongest slam and the court he owns.

Back on Alcaraz… so he wins IW and here we go again with the media hype. They’re drudging up every imaginable stat to compare his accomplishments at his age which are impressive (don’t get me wrong), but the word goat is being tossed around again in future tense and it’s just so ridiculous. Sinner was all rage just 3 weeks ago now their back at it with Carlitos the posts have been going crazy since IW lol. The kid has two slams and many, many, many years to prove he is consistent to be talking about him becoming a goat.  And then we have to compare eras and who did he have to win against. Besides him and Sinner, this next gen era is pretty weak in terms of any of them going on to be all-time greats. Medvedev /Zverev/Tsitsipas/Rune/ Ruud/Dmitrov/Rubelev/Shelton…none of them compare  Roger/Rafa/Novak/Stan and Andy and what they went through. The big three battled each other for nearly 20 years and had the biggest rivalries we will ever see I believe.

It will be interesting to see if Alcaraz has matured after that 10-tournament slump. He has this tendency to talk too much in the press constantly about his big goals and ambitions and you don’t really here that from Sinner. I would like to see him humble himself a bit, pipe down to the media, and let the results speak for themselves. He seemed slightly better at IW and I think that drought may have taught him a few things. He’s still so young and has a lot of maturing to do.

The rest of the year is going to be interesting. On a side note, I am very concerned Novak is checking out now. He had such an amazing season last year… 3 slams, a record breaking #1 ATP finals, most weeks at #1, etc. He really doesn’t have anything else to prove. I do think he has a few more slams in him, but it’s going to be harder than ever with these young guns, who are only getting better and better. And they all want his head now that he’s vulnerable this year. I think Nadal will make it to the clay and
then retire after the FO. We shall see.

So that is my rant on Alcaraz etc and I would say Sinner is my new fav of the next generation. I think Sinner and Carlos will go on to win many slams, but I think Sinner will win more and have the h2h stat over time but i don’t see either matching the big 3’s records…not even close. I’m looking forward to the rest of the season and some great battles between the 3.