AUGUS T 26 – SEP TEMBER 2, 2019 | SPORTS ILLUSTRATED 15
At the Wimbledon final, when the crowd rooted vocally for
Federer, Djokovic convinced himself otherwise: “When the
crowd is chanting ‘Ro-ger, Ro-ger’ I hear ‘No-vak, No-vak.’ It
sounds silly, but it is like that.”What’s Serena Williams’s mind-set?
She won the first of her six U.S. Open titles (gulp) 20 years
ago, as a 17-year-old. But Arthur Ashe Stadium has been
the site of many disappointments as well. Serena was two
matches from winning the 2015 Grand Slam when she
tightened and lost, crushingly, to unseeded Roberta Vinci.
Last year Serena reached the Open final—
and was on the precipice of tying the all-time
mark for major singles titles, with 24—when
she lost strangely and controversially, after
being penalized a game for calling the
chair umpire a “thief.” You can—and many
do—still argue over whether to attribute the
defeat to Serena’s lack of impulse control or
to the umpire’s lack of swallow-the-whistle
discretion. Still stuck on 23, Serena would
pull off the ultimate exorcism if she were to
win her 24th major in September. But she’s
almost 38. She plays (too) sparingly. Since
her return in the spring of 2018 after giving
birth to her daughter, Olympia, she’s reached
the finals in half of her six majors but has
dropped them all. Then again, sepulchers
are filled with the bones of those who have
doubted Serena through the years.Wither Naomi Osaka?
At the 2018 U.S. Open, Osaka, then 20, played valiant
power tennis and kept her nerve in the final, defeating
Williams and winning her first major. She then backed it
up by winning the 2019 Australian Open, becoming No.
1 in the process. Since then, wins have been hard to come
by. Same for motivation and happiness, as Osaka herself
concedes. In a recent lengthy, know-thyself Instagram post,
she conceded, “Whenever things go wrong I blame myself
100%, I have a tendency to shut down because I don’t want
to burden anyone with my thoughts or problems.... I can
honestly reflect and say that I probably haven’t had fun
playing tennis since Australia and I’m finally coming to
terms with that while relearning that fun feeling.” Here’s
hoping she recaptures the fun feeling in New York.Who’s with Coco?
Since her Wimbledon breakthrough, Coco Gauff, the
prodigy from Florida, has not improved her singles
ranking, currently No. 140. That’s hardly a condemnationAnd the margins are impossibly slim. Last month at
Wimbledon, Federer held match point against Djokovic in
the fifth set of their spellbinding final. Federer reared back
and hit a serve that appeared destined to be an ace. The ball
whizzed through the air, but suddenly—as if to say, Nah, I’m
good over here, thanks—clipped the top of the net and fell
on Federer’s side of the court. The crowd sighed. Djokovic
exhaled. Then he won the point. And the game. And,
ultimately, the match, 7–6, 1–6, 7–6, 4–6, 13–12.
The next leg of tennis’s Great Race, the 2019 U.S. Open,
kicks off on Aug. 26 in New York. And the state of the Slam
standings is only the most obvious tournament
story line to follow. Herewith, 10 pressing
questions:
Can Djokovic win over the field?
Right now, the hottest stock in tennis is,
unmistakably, Djokovic Inc. The Serb has won
four of the last five major titles and hasn’t lost
to Nadal or Federer at one since 2014. Federer’s
balletic tennis and Nadal’s lefty, spin-heavy
game are instantly appealing to the casual fan;
Djokovic’s style is more of an acquired taste.
But he’s just as devastatingly effective, and
maybe more so. He’s the best returner in tennis.
His ability to cover the court is extraordinary
and unrivaled, which allows him to extend
rallies and make opponents aim for smaller
targets. He can all but bend spoons with his
mental strength. At his best on hard courts,
Djokovic comes to Flushing Meadow as the top
seed, the defending champion and the betting
favorite. But not the crowd favorite....
Can Djokovic win over the public?
There are, of course, no majors held in Switzerland or Spain,
but Federer and Nadal routinely feel as though they are
playing home games, so consistent is the crowd support
for them. Then there is Djokovic, who, unmistakably, lags
in the popularity rankings. While the best explanation
is that he arrived late to the scene, after fans had already
professed their allegiance for Federer or Nadal, the subject
of Djokovic’s persistently middling approval ratings in
the face of surpassingly excellent tennis remains a talking
point. Some athletes would profess indifference to this,
or even embrace the role of WWE-style heel. Not this guy.
Djokovic—and this is no knock—eagerly craves affection.
As Nick Kyrgios put it earlier this year on a podcast, “I feel
like he just wants to be liked so much that I just can’t stand
him.” Maybe another U.S. Open title will endear Djokovic to
the New York crowd. If not, he has some coping mechanisms.
“
Maybe another
title will endear
djokovic to the
new york crowd.
If not, he has
some coping
mechanisms. “When
the crowd is
chanting ‘Ro-ger,
Ro-ger’ I hear
‘No-vak, No-vak. It
sounds silly, but
it is like that.