Deconstructing Djokovic

[Here is Asad's strikingly original analysis of the Rome final; I addressed the "perspective" issue that Asad handles near the end of his post from a parallel angle in Monday's ESPN column. You know what they say, fried minds think alike - PB]

by TW Contributor Asad Raza

Yesterday, Ubaldo Scannagatta spoke the simple truth to Novak Djokovic: "You are the best player, this year at least."  Novel as it may sound, there is no longer any denying that Djokovic is currently tennis' dominant force--his curriculum vitae for 2008 contains titles at the Australian Open, Indian Wells, and now the biggest clay tournament outside of Roland Garros.  He has not only been outplaying Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal for the last five months, he has been outplaying them combined: this year, Nadal and Federer have one Master's title between them.

Djokovic began the Rome final cautiously, perhaps in an attempt to feel out Stanislas Wawrinka in Wawrinka's first Master's final.  No collapse, however, was forthcoming from the Swiss player-- with his thumping groundstrokes, he quickly took advantage of Djokovic's refusal to immediately press for the advantage in points.  This established the pattern of the first set: Wawrinka winning rallies of about six to eight shots, each heavy Wawrinka forehand or backhand forcing Djokovic back until the killing stroke could be made.

Losing the first set, Djokovic looked average in the face of Wawrinka's bludgeoning (and suddenly, Marat Safin's two losses to Stanislas didn't look so bad).  But then he wisely changed his tack.  Realizing that he had to take the initiative before Wawrinka did, Djokovic had to stop retreating behind the baseline to exchange battering topspin strokes (a style that favored Wawrinka) and start playing his own style: hugging the baseline and dictating play.

As a weapon, Djokovic's refusal to back up, or even lean back, is not as obviously recognized as, say, Federer's forehand, but it is the key to the twenty-year old's game.  When Djokovic is playing well, he hugs the baseline tighter than any current player in tennis (except for one -- Nikolay Davydenko).  But unlike Davydenko, who often whips through the ball with only his arm, Djokovic consistently leans his weight into each and every groundstroke, even on the run, even off of his opponent's deepest shots and fastest serve.  Simply put, it's the reason he can dictate to any topspin slugger.  Once he started leaning forward into every single ball, he began dominating rallies with Wawrinka almost easily.

The sweet spot is the best place on the string bed to hit the ball--but what about the best spot to hit the ball to?  In contemporary tennis, the sweet spot on the court is the backhand corner: a hard, deep shot into it moves the opponent back and out of position.  Both of the great champions above Djokovic in the rankings deal with this shot well: Federer usually resets the point with his superb floating slice (as opposed to his dagger-like slice), while Nadal gives up territory but has the make-up speed to negate the advantage.

Djokovic, however, defends his backhand corner better than either of them.  The method he uses is his signature shot: the stretch backhand that he hits with his left foot forward, in a fully open stance.  I'm not sure this shot gets enough appreciation--he is able to do two very special things with it, one of which is not to retreat from the baseline at all, even on very wide backhands. This is something Nadal, who typically hits those backhands from ten feet further back, cannot do.

The other thing is that Djokovic can hit a good, forward-leaning topsin shot from that position, which is something Federer, who must slice from that position, cannot do.  The upshot is that Djokovic, unlike Roger and Rafa, plays symmetrically--he doesn't have to favor his forehand side, because his backhand is so solid, even offensive, under pressure.

The word that comes to my mind about Djokovic's game is efficacy: the stretch backhand is one way that he accomplishes it, but there are others.  In general, Djokovic rarely hits a spectacular shot, the way both his superiors in the rankings do (Fed is the most spectacular shotmaker I've ever watched; Nadal hits jaw-dropping passing shots).  Instead, Djokovic always hits the RIGHT shot.

If you imagine the choices a tennis player is presented with on any given shot, you'll realize that there are two basic variables: the degree of difficulty you face to hit a shot, and the degree of difficulty it will then cause your opponent.  Somewhere these two lines, one representing risk and the other reward, cross each other on a graph to mark the smartest play: when playing well, Djokovic seems to live at this intersection.

One final thing that impressed me about Djokovic's win on Sunday was his volleying.  He has improved not only his technique, especially on the backhand volley, but his tactical grasp.  Recognizing that he was beginning to get Wawrinka on his heels, Djokovic began to approach intelligently--denying Wawrinka the chance to hit his way back into rallies, and further emphasizing his own control over the rallies.  It was a nice use of the patient attack style that pays special dividends on clay.

Despite his exceedingly effective style, Djokovic sometimes gets ahead of himself and starts fooling around, usually with boneheaded dropshots.  He clearly knows how good he is, and there are moments when, having demonstrated his superiority (to himself, as well as to us and his opponent), he loses focus.  This tendency seems a consequence of the size of his ambitions.  Djokovic has always looked at a bigger pictures than other of his generation (barring Nadal)--any smaller-goal (my first Master's series on clay, etc.) is quickly assimilated to the larger plan. When I asked him about clay-court tennis, his response quickly ballooned:

"I was aiming for Rome and, you know, for Roland Garros as my two priorities in this clay court season.  But, of course, you know, Hamburg is next week, so I'll try to do the best that I can there.  Try to recover in these two or three days.

So I'm very happy that I managed to win a major in this surface, because now I have more confidence approaching the big events on this surface, and on other surfaces as well.  So this year has been like a dream for me, but I want to continue.  I want to finish the year as the No. 1 on the race."

He moves almost too quickly to the larger perspective--calling Rome a "major," and treating Hamburg like a bit of an afterthought (is this a sign that he'll go down early there?).  He ended by giving voice to his real ambition this year, which is to dethrone the two more spectacular, yet perhaps less efficient and effective, players above him.  I wouldn't bet against him...