Fresh off a convincing and thrilling United States Open final victory over Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic admitted he was feeling anything but fresh Tuesday morning.
After defeating Nadal in four exhausting sets, 6-2, 6-4, 6-7(3), 6-1, he celebrated with a party at his hotel in SoHo and managed only a couple of hours of sleep before he made his morning media rounds.
“I’m not feeling like the freshest guy now,” Djokovic said Tuesday at the Empire State Building. “But it’s all for a good cause. It was an incredible tournament for me, especially the final yesterday. I always find energy — after you win the tournament, you’re the happiest guy.”
On paper, Monday’s match, other than the tiebreak loss in the third set, appeared to be a breeze for Djokovic; he lost only five other games. But point after point became a ferocious battle, plenty of which were won after long rallies–and several of which reached more than 20 strokes, sapping the energy out from both competitors.
The grueling play took its toll on Djokovic, who began dealing with leg cramps and a rib and back injury that forced him to call a medical timeout before the start of the fourth set. He admitted there were moments of uncertainty.
“To be honest there were doubts in my mind after the third set because physically I wasn’t there,” he said. “I wasn’t fresh, I had some struggles and he was fitter than me at that point and I felt that. He felt the momentum and he felt that it was his time to take his chances and try to get this match to the fifth set. But I started really well in the fourth and I was going more for precision in my serve rather than speed and I was really opening the court and I knew I had to make the points short so I was hitting the ball really strong.”
Djokovic said slowing down his serve seemed to confuse Nadal; the strategy worked as he dominated Nadal in the fourth set, 6-1, pain, cramps, and all.
Monday night’s triumph cemented one of the greatest – if not the greatest – seasons in tennis history. It was his third Grand Slam of the year and the fourth of his career. He has won a remarkable 64 of 66 matches this season, including six consecutive wins over Nadal, who last defeated the Serbian in the 2010 Open final.
On Tuesday, Djokovic said he believes he owns a psychological advantage over Nadal, the world’s second-ranked player, but he said that the situation could change quickly.
“I stepped on the court knowing what I needed to do against Nadal,” he said. “The five wins I had this year over him in finals helped me and gave me a lot of confidence and a slight mental advantage over Rafa. And I just wanted to use that… But it wasn’t always like this. Now this is my year. Roger had a couple of years where he was winning two or three slams,” he said, referring to Federer. “Rafa had that last year. It’s changing. God knows what it’s going to be next year.”
Djokovic has heard critics decry what he called an “aggressive,” and what others have called an arrogant, personality. He proclaimed he would become the best in the world as a boy in Serbia and never wavered. He is outgoing on and off the court; yelling at fans for disrupting play and then dancing in front of them at center court after victories. Tuesday he said he would like to enter show business and has “a couple” acting offers on the table.
“Why not?” he said.
Still, at age 24, tennis will remain Djokovic’s priority. He said he remains motivated and will always have room to improve — even if there does not seem to be much room left.
“There’s a lot more to prove, a lot more tournaments to win,” Djokovic said. “As long as I have the desire to win, to go out there on the court and have the feeling that I’ve had so far in my career – that is to win every single match that I play in – as long as I have that, I’ll be competing.”
He added, “I’ll always have the high ambitions to win every major that I play because I think I proved now more than ever that I have the ability to win major events and to play equally well on different kinds of surfaces. And that positive attitude and self-belief brought me to this place right now and I need to maintain that. I need to keep believing that I can win more.”
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