Novak Djokovic did not hide his regrets after his four-set loss to Stan Wawrinka in the US Open final. According to the Serbian, there were two reasons why he lost the match.
One was the high level Wawrinka played at and the other was his lack of serving well and mental strength in the key moments. ‘I didn’t capitalize at all on my opportunities. In matches like this, if you don’t use the opportunities, the other guy comes and takes it.
And that’s what he did. That’s why he was more courageous, because he stepped in and played aggressive where I was kind of more waiting for things to happen. ‘I lost my nerves in the important moments. He kept his cool.
I think that’s what decided the match. I guess sometimes it happens, even though you have the experience and know what to do. Just if you lose your cool, the match can go away,’ said Djokovic. He further continued, ‘I made a lot of double faults throughout this tournament.
I was struggling with that shot and with the motion, the movement because of what I carried into this tournament,’ he mentioned hinting about his injury. ‘Unfortunately the serve wasn’t there. When it was needed it wasn’t there, and in the big matches like this you need the serve.
I lost decisive games in second and third set. Just handed him over with some unforced errors and bad serves.’ His 2016 season cannot be anything but amazing anyway and he mentioned as much. ‘Winning two out of four Grand Slams is pretty good year and playing another final.
I have no complaints. Obviously I wish that I could win another title, but this is what it is. You have to shake hands and accept the loss from a better player and move on,’ said Djokovic, adding, ‘It’s not the last time I’m going to lose a big match. Hopefully I can learn from it.
Hopefully I can get better, because that’s the cycle of life for us athletes. Life is a big lesson. It’s a big book. You know, we keep writing the stories. There is another story to be written. I will mention it again: we learn much more from the losses like this than from wins.
Because when you’re winning, everything is fine and you maybe, I guess, shadow certain things that are relevant for you to face and to tackle and to work on.
But when you lose, then all of a sudden you just start questioning yourself whether you have done things right or not and what can you do to be better as a person, as a player.
So that’s where I’m at right now, and that’s what I will think about for the rest of this season and next year,’ The final question was about his controversial medical time-out when he was down 3-1 in the fourth set with Wawrinka set to serve.
Asked if it was a right move, he simply replied, ‘I was allowed, so.’ His reply however was much more interesting and longer when he was asked whether tennis needed to look again at the rules.
Not just on Sunday, but throughout the tournament there were a lot of debate about injury time-outs and toilet breaks that in a way break the rhythm of the game.
Djokovic has been recently elected as the President of the ATP Player Council, so when asked if he could influence changes in the rules, he said, ‘I didn’t have any, I guess, major complaints about that against me or me against any other player.
If this is a debate and players think there should be something changed in the rules, of course we are there to discuss. Will bring this up to the council soon I guess if this is a big deal.’
