A lot more has been made of Novak Djokovic and his dynamic with tennis fans than perhaps even his accomplishments. It is no mystery as to why; most times he plays Roger Federer or Rafael Nadal, majority of the crowd backs his opponent. He carries on and wins majority of the times anyway.
It isn’t always Federer or Nadal who get the crowd support against Djokovic. The same was true in the final of the 2020 Australian Open against Thiem too.
So has this bias of the fans ever really affected him? Absolutely not. And as he says, he has enough fans who love him.
The man has destroyed many people’s conceived notions regarding the fundamentals of tennis. He has dismantled theories of what a player can and cannot do on the court.
Novak Djokovic is a man who has accomplished things that few others have in tennis. He came onto the scene when two giants were wrestling for the tag of the greatest player and forced his own name in the debate.
Like many others like him, Novak could have simply shrugged his shoulders and said ‘nothing I could have done.’ Yet he decided to believe in himself and tapped into his resilience and passion to carve his name in history. And he hasn’t finished yet.
But at the end of the day, all this is mere speculation. What Novak’s thoughts on the subject? We know now.
Novak Djokovic gives his take
In an expansive press conference, the Serb spoke out on the subject and gave us his thoughts.
“A lot has been written about how I am not loved. My personal impression is that I have a lot of support and sympathy for me. When I play Federer or Nadal, crowd supports them but that doesn’t mean that I’m hated and that I should turn whole of Serbian public against the world. I don’t like those stories ‘Serbia against the World.’”
Spoken like a true-blue champion.
Djokovic does not hide from anyone, or anything. He even addressed the antics he sometimes gets into on the court.
“Sometimes I get distracted, I have outbursts, is it the crowd, umpire, wind etc. I admit that and I’m not proud of that, but I’m a human being that makes mistakes, and I try to become better every day.”
He also reiterated that he does not want to invest his time and energy into such stories, because that will only make them grow. He simply does not want that negativity around him.
As a Novak fan myself, I have cursed the crowd countless times because they support his opponent. Now I can learn from the man himself and understand that, just because they don’t cheer for him, doesn’t mean they hate him.
In recent times, I have come to realize one thing about Djokovic and his fans. He may not have the numbers like Federer and Nadal, but the fans that do support him, absolutely love him to death. They are more passionate and immersed in his career than any other fans.
Novak Djokovic Records Which May Never Be Broken
Novak Djokovic is on top of the world these days. In the first week of February, he outlasted Grand Slam aspirant Dominic Thiem in an epic encounter. The Serbian sits as the undisputed King of Australia after extending his record to 8 slams Down Under.
Novak Djokovic the titan
Djokovic also recaptured the World No. 1 spot in the process of lifting the Australian Open. Something that probably wasn’t weighing heavy on his mind so early in the season, but he simply wants it all. You don’t get that good unless you want it all, right?
Djokovic has spent his entire career trying to prove himself as the best. He has come pretty close to proving that he is not just the best, but maybe the best of all time. Look back and you see months and years where his domination knew no bounds. He outclassed the best of the best on the biggest of stages.
With his 8th Major he now inches closer to Rafael Nadal’s 19 and Roger Federer’s 20 with 17 for himself. I have little to no doubt he will break the record for the most grand Slam titles in men’s tennis.
As he is plowing through the tennis records, let’s take a look at some of the records that he already holds and are unlikely to be broken any time soon.
Holder of all 4 Majors on three different surfaces
The record of holding all four Grand Slams, on three different surfaces has to come first in this list. In 2016, Novak Djokovic finally won his first French Open title to complete his career Grand Slam. He also held the other three Majors when he did, meaning he became the very first man in tennis history to hold all Majors on three different surfaces.
If that wasn’t impressive enough, he also had the ATP Tour Finals title in his kitty at the time.
Rod Laver and Don Budge have previously won the Calendar Grand Slam before the Open Era began, meaning they won all four Majors in a single year. In fact, Laver accomplished the feat twice, in 1962 and 1969. However, back then hard courts were not around.
Career Golden Masters
There are a total of 9 Masters titles in a tennis season. Novak sits alone as the only man to have won all the Masters 1000 titles on the ATP World Tour. In the 30 year history of the Masters 1000 series, Djokovic is the only man to do so. It was the Cincinnati Masters that evaded the Serbian for a while, but in 2018, he finally won it to complete his Golden Masters.
Roger Federer has seven of the nine Masters, missing the Monte-Carlo and Rome Masters, both of which are on clay. Rafael Nadal too has seven of the nine, having never won the Miami Open and Paris Masters in his career.
Hat-trick of Sunshine Double
The Sunshine Double is when a player wins the Indian Wells Masters and the Miami Masters in the same season. It is one of the most difficult achievements in tennis. Novak has won the Sunshine Double an unprecedented 4 times in his career. Not only that, the Serb won 3 of those 4 doubles in consecutive years from 2014 to 2016.
Winning it once is a huge ask in itself, winning it four times is near impossible. Highly unlikely anyone will manage to repeat this feat.
More points than 2nd and 3rd rank
Novak Djokovic was on a mission in 2015 and 2016. He was near invincible until after the Roland Garros. When he did finally lift the French Open title in 2016, his tally of ranking points reached 16,950. This was more than the addition of the No. 2 (Andy Murray 8915 points) and No. 3 (Roger Federer 6655 points) ranked players.
Now that is pure dominance.
Sadly what followed with Novak’s form was inexplicable and remains one of the biggest shocks in sports history.
Most wins against top 10 in a season
In 2015, Djokovic was a titan. He absolutely shredded the top 10 in the world that year with a record 31 victories against them. In that 31 wins, 6 came against Andy Murray, 5 against Federer, 4 against Nadal among others. He had the other nine players shivering with fear with his brilliance.
Fastest ATP Tour Finals qualification
Novak Djokovic went on a 43 match winning streak from the start of the 2011 season. He qualified for the ATP World Tour Finals after just 18 weeks and 6 days!
Unsurprising then that his 2011 season is considered to be one of the greatest seasons in tennis history.
30 consecutive match wins in Majors
During the 2015-16 time period, Djokovic went on a mind-boggling 30 match win streak in Grand Slams. It all started at the 2015 Wimbledon and culminated in the Serb winning the French Open in 2016, to hold all four Majors. Nole finally lost in the third round of the 2016 Wimbledon to Sam Querrey.
Men’s tennis has never seen domination of that degree in the Open Era.
Most elite level titles won in a year
Once again we go back to the year 2015 for an unbelievable record. Djokovic won 10 elite level events in 2015, leaving almost nothing but scraps for all his rivals. The titles included all Majors except Roland Garros, Indian Wells, Miami Masters, Monte-Carlo Masters, Rome Masters, Shanghai Masters, Paris Masters and the ATP World Tour Finals.
Is that a jaw-dropping list or what?
