The journey from mental toughness to mental lapses - What is wrong with Novak Djokovic? (Part 1)

Just 3 years ago, nothing could go wrong with Novak Djokovic, whose historic 70-6 record in 2011 was considered amongst the best ever in tennis history. Not only this, his comeback wins from match points down had given him the nickname “Rasputin of tennis” – the player who refuses to die. 

The world was just perfect for Novak Djokovic. Nothing could go wrong, it seemed. But lately, a wave of transformation has hit him. All of a sudden, from the Rasputin of tennis, he has now become one of the most vulnerable tennis players when it comes to crunch situations.

More often than not, there seems to be a hollow look in his eyes during the latter stages of the matches. You can see a line of doubt in his eyes and as a fan you know that he is going to falter sooner rather than later. The fiery wide eyes which used to be a common sight earlier on in 2011, have been replaced with a slightly dejected look; even his receiving stance has changed.

It is not surprising that even in the matches in which he has the lead, he seems to be falling apart. To his credit, he admitted his mental lapses after the end of the 2013 season and hired Boris Becker specifically to address the issue this year.

What is interesting is that this trend only seems to be there in Grand Slam matches – or the biggest stages. During the other tournaments, he is pretty much the invincible Djokovic of 2011.

I really suspect – and this is purely speculation – that all of this started during last year’s French Open, when at 4-3 and deuce in the fifth he had a simple volley on top of the net, but was so eager that he could not stop himself running into the net cord before the ball had bounced twice, therefore losing the point. Had he won the point, the outcome could have been totally different and as it happened, Rafael Nadal went on to win probably the most important match of Djokovic’s career – the victory denied Djokovic the golden opportunity of achieving his Career Grand Slam.

Since that crucial point, if we look at Djokovic’s Grand Slam record, it has been distinctly underwhelming. He has gone on to lose matches in which he has had the lead on his opponents during several sets. He has not been able to make a strong comeback against Rafael Nadal or Andy Murray since then in the Majors. Not only that, he has failed to take any one of them to five sets whereas just two years ago, that was a normal phenomenon.

Djokovic has lost the last 3 Slam finals in which he has played (which in my opinion is complete injustice to the talent that he has). So one has to wonder: what is wrong with him, really? To me it seems the French Open net cord point still seems to subconsciously affect him in crunch situations. He has yet not been able to shrug it off as completely as one would think.

That net cord is the difference why Djokovic does not have a career Grand Slam in his list of accomplishments – something that has been achieved by only a handful of players in tennis history so far.

It has now resulted into Djokovic giving up leads in sets, and playing cautiously during the crunch moments. He has been feeling the pressure to such an extent that he committed a double fault at match point during the French Open final this year. Yes, a fan shouted in the middle of his serve motion, but then athletes are trained to handle such distractions. Do you think the 2011 Djokovic would have failed to handle it?

In 2012, just before Australian Open, I wrote on how Nadal can overcome his mental barrier against Djokovic, which had resulted in six consecutive losses for the Spaniard. We all know what happened after that. Who knows, this time it may be Djokovic’s time for a turnaround?

So what can he really do to overcome this recurrence of worrying events in his life? I will be back with my views tomorrow with PART II wherein I will write down my thoughts on how Djokovic can overcome this.