by Pete Bodo
Earlier today in Basel, Poland's Lukasz Kubot was trailing Novak Djokovic 1-4 in the first set and desperately fighting to keep things within one break. Serving at deuce, he engaged Djokovic in a long, high-quality rally that ended when Djokovic, some three or four feet behind the baseline, pulled up and threw in a drop shot.
Granted, the ploy worked—but only because Kubot made a hash of the retrieve. But the shot seemed emblematic of something larger and more relevant to Djokovic at this stage of the year. He seemed to just want to get the point over with—something I can't imagine him having done back in September, during the U.S. Open final. And I can imagine that in a larger way he just wants this year to be over.
But it's not. And Djokovic's rivals still have a chance to whittle down his reputation while he undoubtedly would prefer to be seated on a porch, whittling. And who can blame him? Djokovic has already had a spectacular year, during which he won three (of a possible four) Grand Slam singles titles, amassed one of the great all-time winning streaks (43 matches), won his first Wimbledon title, earned the No. 1 ranking, and posted a combined 10-1 record against the two former No. 1s who had, for years, stood in his way. That would be Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal, the latter of whom Djokovic beat six times this year, all those clashes in Grand Slam or Masters Series finals.
But there Djokovic is, in Basel, defending his ranking and reputation. He recovered from a rusty first match and handled Kubot with ease today, but I'll bet that early December, when the ATP finally closes up shop for the year, seems far, far away—no matter how well rested and fit Djokovic might be. After all, his reputation is, while not exactly in make-it or break-it condition, on the line.
Tennis interest in the general public tends to cease after the U.S. Open, and the top players—including Djokovic—rather impolitically like to point out that the main reason they play is to win majors. Of which there are none in that long stretch from early September to the week after Thanksgiving.
If the year had ended with the U.S. Open, Djokovic could brag about having joined John McEnroe, Jimmy Connors and Roger Federer in something like a dead heat for best winning percentage of all time, 96.969 (on a 64-2 record). But he's now 66-3 (the third loss was in Davis Cup right after the Open, in a match Djokovic was unable to finish due to injury), with some big events still to come. Right now, only McEnroe played a year and absorbed so few beatings. But Djokovic has at least two more big events to play after Basel—one of them the round-robin ATP World Tour Finals.
Well, Djokovic could crap out in each of those events and still claim to have had one of the greatest years in tennis history. He knows this as well as you or I do, which is why he's in such a difficult position. Whey you can see him thinking or muttering, Enough already! His rivals in the single-year achievement sweepstakes certainly faced the same challenge, especially the ones who won three of the four majors. And if they found the desire and will to keep their skeins going up to the very end, we have a right to expect Djokovic to do it, too.
But one big difference in their comparative situations is that Djokovic is coming back from a long layoff due to what he described as the "most serious" injury of his career. It must in some ways seem like a new year, albeit one in which he has little to gain compared to the stakes in play from January until September.
It somehow seems unfair to Djokovic (as it once did to those in whose shoes he now stands) that a few losses in the coming weeks would end this amazing year on a slightly sour note and with a distinct loss of momentum. For "momentum" was, to me, what Djokovic was all about this year; both minute-to-minute in any given match, and week-to-week. It was a quality, or gift, that seemed just as much a part of his success as his technical or strategic superiority or assets.
Djokovic took that "in the zone" concept and applied it to a remarkable nine-month span. Forced out of it by injury, what are the chances that he'll slip back into the zone to finish the year as strongly as those other men whose career years produced winning percentages of .900 or better? We're about to find out.
In a better world, the tennis year would end much sooner. In a perfect world, it would end right about when it does, but with a major event rather than a gradual tailing off. There is no Super Bowl in tennis; there are four of them, and not one is at anything like the appropriate time. Whatever else happens, after the four big meetings are over, you still have to go back and take part in what we might call divisional play. The situation is really awkward.
Over time, the World Tour Finals might get to the point where it's accepted as the grand finale. If it isn't there yet, it's not for lack of effort by the ATP or inadequate support from the game's stars. It's because of the conditioning of the public and general media. That's another reason to hope Djokovic can end the year as strongly as he started it. It would not only be good for Djokovic, but good for the game.