Friday 16 September 2011

Super Serb/ SuperNovak!!!!!!!!

In Chinese, they always have the year associated with some Animal and they call it Year of Dragon, Year for Dog etc. I think in Tennis too this concept should be applied.We have Years of Rog in 2005,06,07, then 08 and 09 were split between Rog and Rafa. 2011 was Year of Rafa and 2011 has been Year of Novak or should we call him SuperNova(k)!!!!!

Last year US open was the turning point of Nole I guess. When Roger and Rafa were fighting it out between them who would be the top man in tennis, Djokovic was constantly the 3rd best for past 4 years. He always used to be an Outsider and was considered one Grand slam wonder by many, including me. How he has proved us all wrong. According to him its that Davis cup win and a change in the diet!!!! For me its tough to accept the explanation. I am not doubting his ability. He is a great player. He has both attacking and defensive game. But what was problematic was his stamina, health and giving up on the match if he starts losing. He literally changed all that in a span of a month.

Whatever may be the reason behind it, but what we have now is a supremely confident Novak Djokovic. There was one time when I used to like him. But not in recent times.But I am impressed.What a year he is having just makes you speechless.He is winning matches and tournaments week in week out and in the process have defeated almost all of the top order. Roger 4 times and Nadal 6 times and for Nadal it were all finals. Thats a huge thing and no one would have considered it possible last year.

Last year Nadal was cruising. His fans have even crowned him as GOAT even if he still has less slams than Federer. Everybody thought he will do what no one has been ever able to do after Laver. I.e. to win 4 consecutive Grand slams. And in all furor no one took notice of the Djoker. He was clinically dismantling his opponents and won the Australian Open. No one thought much about it as he already have won the slam once. So no big deal right? But then came the masters and his streak continued. He was almost touching McEnroe's Streak of 46 consecutive wins but for Roger. Roger showed the world that he is not finished as predicted. He can still take out the most Red hot guy and he is 30. Who knows what would have happened if Roger have lost in that match. May be Rafa would have pulled one back or Nole would have continued his streak till now.

Today his record stands for 64-2. The two losses are to Federer in French Open SF and retirement against Murray in Cinni. And why I felt like writing about him is not just his no. of wins but some of the matches he played this year were spectacular. He played Roger with great defence in AO 11 and then played Nadal's game and more in Wimbledon and US open. These matches were a spectacle of Tennis though I don't personally like the grinding, retrieving baseline tennis but still they were spectacles. Even I couldn't stop saying wow in many of the US open final Rallies.

Hats of to Novak. Of course I have my own agenda/motive/selfish interest in Novak's rise this year. He has single handedly stopped Rafa from running away with grand slams and equalling Roger's record. Those people who used to throw at me the fact that Rafa always defeats roger and hence should be considered great have got this one to explain. This now is a good circle we have at top of men's tennis. Nole beats Rafa, Rafa beats Roger and Roger beats Nole (sometimes :P).

This will be great for the world of tennis and lets see whose's year it would be 2012

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