Golden Aura

KEY BISCAYNE, Fla.—After an hour of play on a blazingly humid Friday afternoon at Crandon Park, David Goffin led Novak Djokovic by a single point, 2-1, in the first-set tiebreaker. The stadium court echoed with the thud from his last shot, a 116-m.p.h. ace. The 15th-ranked Goffin had lost all three of his previous matches to Djokovic, and he was playing his first semifinal at a Masters-level event, but he didn’t appear to be intimidated by the opponent or the moment.

Or at least that’s what a few of the fans sitting near me seemed to think.

“He’s got his confidence going,” one said.

“He’s not scared,” his neighbor agreed.

“Hey, this guy is good,” a third chimed in, more than slightly amazed that an unheralded and undersized Belgian could push the world’s No. 1 player this far.

My answer to them in my own head?

“We’ll see.”

Goffin had come a long way over the last month, particularly for a 25-year-old who has been on tour for the better part of a decade. He had beaten Stan Wawrinka on his way to the quarterfinals in Indian Wells and had dropped just one set on his way to the semis in Miami. He had always had flashy ball-striking skills; now he had added strength and substance to the style.

All of that was fine and encouraging, but it bore little resemblance, psychologically, to the challenge of playing with a lead against Djokovic right now. How could we expect any player, no matter what his level of confidence, to believe he can close out a match against Djokovic on this day, on this court? The numbers alone were enough to sap even the toughest competitor's willpower.

Coming in, Djokovic had lost one match in Miami since 2010. (It came to Tommy Haas in 2013—will that go down as the German’s most notable accomplishment?) Djokovic was 54-2 in his last 56 matches at Masters events, and 26-1 in 2016. Worst of all for Goffin, the last time he had played Djokovic, in Cincinnati in 2015, he had led 3-0 in the third set before promptly losing six straight games.

Maybe Goffin had a flashback to that third set in Cincy. On Friday in Key Biscayne, he matched Djokovic shot for shot, right up to the point when he threatened to take a lead—right up, in other words, to the point where he had something to lose. Once he went ahead 2-1 in the first-set tiebreaker, he couldn't put a ball in the ocean: He netted a return, sent an easy forehand careening beyond the doubles alley and pushed an even easier backhand long.

Down 2-4 and thus back in his comfort zone, Goffin evened the score at 4-4. Again, he threatened to take the lead; in fact, this time it looked all but guaranteed. At 4-4, Goffin worked his way forward and set himself up for the easiest of overheads. Djokovic had virtually conceded the point ... until he saw the ball coming straight to him. Rather than tapping it into the open court, Goffin had inexplicably sent a nothing-burger right down the middle, right to his opponent’s racquet. A stunned Djokovic reflexed a lob that landed a few feet from the baseline, and eventually won the point with a drop volley.

For Goffin, there was no way back. Just for good measure, though, Djokovic closed the set by running him through another highlight-reel rally before delivering the final blow. After an hour and 13 minutes in the midday sun, Goffin staggered to the sideline with nothing to show for his effort. While he never folded, from that point on Djokovic’s 7-6 (5), 6-4 win had the feel of inevitability.

Statistically, this wasn’t Djokovic at his finest. He hit 20 winners (five fewer than Goffin), committed 29 errors and made just 59 percent of his first serves. No matter what his form was like, though, he carried with him the most important stat of all: No. 1. Like every player in that position, Djokovic’s biggest weapon is his stature, his aura, his record, his rep. When Goffin was behind, he played with freedom; but whenever he leveled the score, it was as if a force field came between his shots and the other side of the court. Something kept him from playing his normal game. Something made him hit the easiest of overheads back to his opponent.

Not surprisingly, the first question Goffin fielded in his presser afterward was about that 4-4 point. It was obvious from his answer that Djokovic himself had been the reason for his brain cramp.

“It was a big point,” Goffin said, “so I was a little bit tired at the end of the point, and then sometimes you aren’t focused on the last point and on the last shot. Against Djokovic you have to make every point. You have to go for the shot in every point. He doesn’t give anything, so you have to win every point. It’s tough, because if you are not there for a few seconds, you lose the game.”

Every tennis match is a two-way street, of course, and the same force that made Goffin hit the ball to Djokovic allowed Djokovic to come up with the perfect, spontaneous response.

“I think he framed it a little bit,” Djokovic said of Goffin’s smash, “which allowed me to get that height, and I was just at the right place at the right time. Sometimes, those kinds of situations appear and you try to put yourself in the right position and just make your opponent play an extra shot.”

“Just make your opponent play an extra shot”: It sounds so simple, and in a way it is. But right now only Djokovic, with his superior speed, defense, consistency and completeness, can feel sure that this will be enough to see him through a match. Only Djokovic, with his current aura of invincibility, knows that it’s up to the other guy to redline to beat him, that it’s up to the other guy to, as Goffin said, “go for the shot in every point,” that it’s up to the other guy to make himself believe that he can hold his nerve when he has a lead, that it’s up to the challenger to knock out the champ.

Only Djokovic knows that his normal game will almost always be enough. It must be a nice thing to know.

Images from Anita Aguilar/TENNIS.com