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Djokovic In
Crisis –
Physical Or
Mental?
Alessandro Mastroluca
Novak Djokovic is in crisis.
While many pundits have
danced around that word
for many months now,
preferring to use
euphemisms such as
“rough patch” or “difficult
period,” we can no longer
call what he is
experiencing anything
other than a crisis. Indeed,
for nearly a full year now,
Djokovic has played well
below the level his fans
have come to expect from
him. After winning the
French Open last year, it
looked as if he would
cruise to the calendar
Grand Slam, even further
strengthening his hold on
the world number one
position. Instead, he went
into an extended period of
decline, losing his world
number one ranking and
rarely reaching the latter
stages of big events. So
far has his form fallen that
he is currently 17th in the
Race Rankings, which only
take into accounts point
accumulate in the current
year. Ahead of him in
these rankings? The likes
of Pablo Cuevas and Jack
Sock.
Of course, much has been
said about Djokovicʼs
struggles, with just about
every tennis fan on Earth
having a theory of their
own. We do know for sure
that the Serb had some
personal problems
towards the middle of last
year, as he has admitted
as much. Exactly what the
problems were and when
(or even if) they were
resolved is unclear. While
this may go some way to
explaining the crisis, it is
unlikely to be the only
reason for it.
Djokovic has even gone so
far as to change his
training methods, which
certainly has nothing to do
with his personal life, and
likely indicates that he
himself doesnʼt quite
know how to fix what is
wrong. Boris Becker, who
coached Djokovic from
2014 to 2016, has also
revealed that his former
pupil did not train as well
as he should have after
Roland Garros last year.
But is his problem purely
a mental one? Diving into
his statistics could
possibly provide us with
some answers. Firstly, let
us look at his
performance in the final
set of matches. In 2016,
he won 9 out of 10
matches in which he was
pushed to a decisive set,
with his only loss coming
against Jiri Vesely in
Monte Carlo. This
season, however, he has
already lost two matches