Tennis World english 38 Tennis World English 38 | 页面 6

not experienced similar issues in recent
years, but in those moments he was able to
overcome them and still keep his tennis at a
high level. As can be seen from his recent
results – third round at Wimbledon, first
round at the Olympics, runner-up at the UP
Open, semi-finals in Shanghai – he is not
able to overcome his current struggles as he
has in the past.
Even more alarming has been the rankings
of the players he has lost to recently. Apart
from Wawrinka, who is a Top 10 player, the
others were ranked 19, 41 and 141 in the
world when they beat him. Confirmation that
one does not even have to be playing at a
particularly high level to beat Djokovic these
days.
In addition to Djokovic's problems, his main
rival of the moment, Andy Murray, has made
consistent strides to improve every aspect of
his game over the past year. So much so, in
fact, that Murray is now breathing down
Djokovic’s neck in the rankings. Every time
the Serb has fallen, Murray has been there
to close the gap a little further.
In the second half of the season Murray has
won five tournaments: Queen's, Wimbledon,
Olympics, Beijing and Shanghai. He has also
reached the final in Cincinnati. In the same
period, Djokovic has won just one
tournament, at the Masters 1000 event in
Canada. Add to this the fact that Djokovic is
defending a lot of points Paris, the ATP
World Tour Finals, Doha, the Australian
Open, Indian Wells and Miami, and it is easy

to see how Murray might overtake him to
become world number one in the near future.
Djokovic is therefore facing a very difficult
situation, as he needs to play his best tennis
in the coming months while not being in the
best form on or off the court. Whether he
manages to do this might have a major
impact on his legacy.