There are many reasons for loving sport but perhaps the greatest is its capacity for surprise. When Rafael Nadal beat Roger Federer in a magnificent Wimbledon final in 2008, it seemed a pivotal moment in tennis as a great champion was beaten by his successor. Nadal missed 2009 through in jury but easily won his second title last year. Everyone agreed he was the future of the men’s game. So what now?
Well, sometimes you just shake your head and wonder. What do we know? Of course Novak Djokovic’s talent wasn’t a secret and there was always the suspicion that if he could somehow find the same desire that burned inside the Spaniard that would mean trouble for everyone else. But it was such a big “if”.
Around the turn of the year, everything changed.
Novak Djokovic accepted extraordinary talent comes with onerous responsibility and that acceptance allowed a gifted player to become a great one. It wasn’t that he beat Nadal in a Wimbledon final most expected him to lose but it was the manner of his victory that we shall recall.
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His plan was simple but audacious as from the moment the match began, he was prepared to take on the double Wimbledon champion and ten-time Grand Slam winner at his favourite game.
Imagine how the internal, unspoken conversation went?
Novak: “Okay Rafa, how do you want to play this?”
Rafa: “I’m happy to shoot it out from the baseline.”
Novak: “That’s where you think you can’t be beaten, right.”
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Rafa: “No, I don’t believe I can lose that kind of match.”
Novak: “This time, you’re going to.”
Consider, for a moment, how Andy Murray approached his semi-final with Nadal. His belief, and one shared by pretty much every commentator, was that he couldn’t slug it with the reigning champion. So Murray changed his natural game to try to find a way of quickly ending his rallies with Nadal. He went for winners from positions of relative weakness and tried to play a game that was beyond him.
In sport, the guard constantly changes and in this respect, Wimbledon 2011 was a momentous tournament You may have seen Djokovic on some of his best days and formed the opinion that when in full flow, he is the game’s most gifted player. But even if you believed that, his brilliance in this final was arresting. He stood at the back of the court through the first two sets, traded heavyweight blows with the undisputed champion of baseline tennis, and knocked him senseless.
Nadal likes to send messages to his opponent, the little runs from his chair after a change-of-end break, the refusal to seem pleased after a great shot, as if the shot was just what he expected of himself. But this time Rafa, the John Wayne of tennis, was outgunned. He hit his forehands and backhands with customary power but they came quicker, better angled andalways just inside the baseline.
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Against this opponent the man who made just seven unforced errors against Murray in the semi-final made eight barely four games into the second set.
This concept of “unforced” error is, of course, flawed as it is separated from the context of the match. For example, Nadal overhits a routine forehand beyond the baseline and though the error was unforced in the context of the rally, it happens because Nadal is losing most of the long rallies and reacts to a sense that he needs to do more. If this then unforced?
Perhaps just as striking as Djokovic’s brilliance in the first two sets was the calmness he showed in regaining the initiative in the fourth after losing his concentration and his fluency in the third. He is brilliant player but also a thoughtful one and he could see the loss of that third set was the result of his standard falling.
So, he buckled down in the fourth and though he didn’t ever regain his earlier brilliance he got back to a level that was enough. It was telling that once Djokovic regained his focus, Nadal’s self-doubt returned. Having lost four finals to Djokovic this year the Spaniard’s belief that he could turn the sequence around was, at best, fragile.
The future now becomes more interesting as Djokovic’s third Grand Slam title fell to him a day before he officially becomes World No 1. He is 24 and getting better but Nadal is just 25. So where do we go from here? Can Djokovic win more Grand Slam titles than Nadal which would mean winning eight more than his rival over the remainder of their careers? Not likely but before this final, the question couldn’t have been posed.
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But in sport, the guard constantly changes and in this respect, Wimbledon 2011 was a momentous tournament. Roger Federer may not be gone, neither can one be dismissive of the Venus and especially Serena Williams but they are no longer in their prime and from here, it will get much harder for all three.
Not just because they grow older but because the next generation has arrived. Petra Kvitova was brilliant in her victory over Maria Sharapova and for two sets at least, Novak Djokovic was extraordinary against Nadal. They won their first Wimbledons in 2011 and before there is another changing of the guard, they will have won it again and, probably, again.