Novak Djokovic: 2013 Season Review

Novak Djokovic entered 2013 as the man to beat on the ATP World Tour after stringing together two seasons of 70+ wins and finishing year end No.1 at the end of both the seasons. If he had to look for motivation after such hugely successful seasons, he had at least three reasons to look forward to the 2013 season:

1. He could do a three-peat (3 consecutive titles) at the Australian Open which no man had ever done in the Open Era.
2. He was getting ever so close to the much-coveted Career Slam with improved showings year after year at the French Open. With Rafa Nadal expected to come to the tour after a huge lay-off period, this was the year the Serbian had to look for.
3. Winning Monte Carlo and Cincinnati would take him to one more list where he would stand alone – Conquerer of all Masters tournaments currently on tour.

At the end of 2013, how many of these was Novak able to achieve? Let’s take stock of it all in this year end review of Novak Djokovic’s season.

Djokovic put his Australian Open preparations underway in a manner as relaxing as one possibly could have, having fun with Ana Ivanovic and tussling in friendlies with Tomic and Haas. But when the Open got underway, there was no room for fun and his quest for a three-peat looked to have been put in serious danger during his 4R encounter against Stanislas Wawrinka, with the Serb trailing 1-6 2-5. He came back from the brink of a heart-breaking loss to regroup and put to rest the Swiss threat in one of the best matches of the entire season. The tennis was of such supreme quality that it brought the match close to being described as the slam final played on the first Sunday. His celebrations after the match expressed exactly that. That was the only stern test he had to face before he tamed Andy Murray in four sets to claim his 4th Australian Open title and with it, the 3-peat!

He carried the momentum forward by winning his sole Davis cup QF encounter and the Dubai title without dropping a set. In the meantime, elsewhere, his arch-rival Rafael Nadal was beginning his comeback with back-to-back titles in Brazil and Mexico. They were seeded to meet in the final at Indian Wells which did not happen much to the disappointment of fans as Juan Martin del Potro‘s bludgeoning hitting sucked all the energy Djokovic had in his tank in the duo’s semi final match. At Miami, he suffered a shocking 4R exit as he was pelted by Tommy Haas 2-6 4-6. The doubts around Djokovic’s chances to go a step further in the European clay swing mounted.

Djokovic responded like he usually has done the past two years. The much expected Rafa-Nole final happened at Monte Carlo and Djokovic put paid his previous year’s humiliating loss as he cruised past Rafa 7-6 6-2 to break the Majorcan’s stupefying streak of 9 consecutive titles at the Principality. The buzz around Novak’s career Slam was back again! The ensuing month was anti-climactic though.

Novak went to Madrid and lost his first match after the triumph at Monte Carlo, in a contest that had a lot of crowd involvement against the champion player. He doesn’t usually get overwhelmed by such crowd response but this time, the backhand of Grigor Dimitrov stayed its course in the decider as Djokovic suffered his first clay court loss 6-7 7-6 3-6. When posed a stern test in the Rome Masters quarter-final, Djokovic faltered yet again losing to Berdych this time, again in 3 sets. What was in store for Roland Garros? A semi-final match against the man who had denied him the title a year ago.

In one of the most fluctuating contests Rafa had been involved in Roland Garros in years, the two crusaders put up a show that made the match one of the best in the year. Djokovic came back from being a set down and later from two sets to one down to take it to a fifth. He was up a break and at 4-3, he made what could be one of the costliest mistakes in the history of tennis, given what was at stake, hitting a smash and crashing right on to the net thereby losing the point. Rafa needed just that to shift the momentum in his favour as he gave Djokovic yet another excruciating loss when he won the fifth 9-7.

Djokovic went on a mini-vacation to put to rest the ghosts of Roland Garros and it seemed to have worked well as he cruised to the Wimbledon semis without dropping a set. There he met the gentle Argentine del Potro and they got into one jaw-dropping tussle, bringing the baseline slugfest into the only territory the style of play was yet to conquer – SW19! Djokovic prevailed to win it 6-3 in the fifth but the match seemed to have taken a toll on his physical and mental self as his game evidently crumbled all the way in the final as much as Murray’s was steady. While Andy Murray made history, Djokovic had by now started to lose his stranglehold on the No. 1 ranking.

In Canada, where he was the defending champion, he met Rafa in yet another semi-final but lost the tight encounter as he was taken aback by an ultra-aggressive Rafa, especially in the deciding tiebreaker! His hopes of a ‘Masters-Slam’ at Cincinnati after the triumph at Monte Carlo were dashed by the booming serves and groundstrokes of an inspired John Isner in the quarterfinal. Up next, the US Open.

In the semis at the US Open, there was a sequel to the Stan-Nole Australian Open match-up as they decided to go the distance yet again but this time, a cramped Stanislas couldn’t deliver a quality fight in the fifth, surrendering to Nole 6-4. The rivalry that was now beginning to become a given at any major event was set to happen yet again: Rafa vs Nole. Rafa took the first set; Novak, the second. When Novak looked like he was about to take the third making Rafa huff, puff and even fall, Nadal came back like only he can to win the set and before a flummoxed Djokovic could blink in the fourth set, the match was over!

Two final losses, a semis loss and a win summed up Novak’s 2013 Slam record. He would have liked to have scripted that better! But was he bogged down after those missed chances? Not really.

His post US Open response after losing the No. 1 ranking to Rafa in Beijing can be considered ‘inspiring’ for want of a better word. He went on to win 24 consecutive matches to end the season (with titles at Beijing, Shanghai Masters, Paris Masters, Davis cup SF and Final match wins and a third year end World Tour Finals title), winning two in two against Rafa to add spice to the rivalry. After the kind of year that Rafa had had, the fact that Djokovic was able to bring the fight for the year end ranking to the last week speaks volumes of how incredible a season he too had had. He finished yet another season with 70+ wins, ending it 74-9!

Here is a look at how Djokovic recovered from a series of mid-season slumps.

Djokovic 2013 summary

He rounded the year off the way he started it. There is no reason not to believe why he cannot stay there when he begins 2014 – looking for a 4-peat. Ajde Nole, good luck!