- Photo courtesy of edition.cnn.com
Novak Djokovic is trying to complete ATP history this week at the Western and Southern Open in Cincinnati. The world No.1 is aiming to become the first man in tennis history to win all the ATP 1000 events in their career. The ATP is calling this potential achievement the ‘Career Golden Masters’. But their is one thing getting in Djokovic’s way. That very same thing that got him within a tournament from creating such history: his game. The Serbian has been rather rusty since coming back to the tour on the back of his twin successes of his Wimbledon victory and his marriage.
That rustiness first showed itself in Toronto. Djokovic went into his second round match against 15th seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga on an 11 match winning streak against the Frenchman. He was also coming of the back of a Wimbledon win and as the champion of three of the five ATP events played this year. Toronto is also played on the Serbian’s best surface, hard courts. When the two took to the court, many expected Djokovic to get a straightforward win against the man who had not won more than 3 consecutive matches since the knee injury that afflicted him at Wimbledon 2013. The match though was anything but straightforward. What it was was an out and out shock as Tsonga thrashed Djokovic 6-2, 6-2.
Last night in Cincinnati, in his opening match, Djokovic went into another supposedly comfortable contest against Gilles Simon, another Frenchman, who he led 7-1 in their career head to head and came out battered and bruised. While Djokovic did not lose the match, there were moments when defeat looked dangerously close. The Serbian led by a set and 3-1 before Simon won five of six games in a row as his defensive skills got the better of the best baseliner in the game. Djokovic edged the close battle 6-3 in the third, but he came out looking anything but the man on the verge of adding the final ATP 1000 event to his collection.
Djokovic’s ATP 1000 title haul started at the Canadian Open in 2007 when he beat world’s No. 1, 2 and 3, Federer, Rafael Nadal and Andy Roddick, on his way to the title. Djokovic has won in Canada three times. The other ATP 1000 events played on hard courts, in Miami and Indian Wells in the North American Spring swing, Djokovic has won a combined seven times. Indoors, Djokovic has won both the Paris Open and Shanghai twice each. Finally, on the Clay, which has three ATP 1000 titles in Monte Carlo, Rome and Madrid, Djokovic has one, three and one titles respectively. That makes for a total of 19 ATP 1000 titles. Djokovic has had his chances to add the Cinicinnati title to his haul, but Federer has beaten the Serbian twice in Cincinnati finals while Andy Murray has proved the better player on the day in Djokovic’s two other finals in Ohio.
To finally make it 20, and make ATP history, Novak Djokovic has to first get past either American Sam Querrey or Spaniard 16th seed Tommy Robredo. Djokovic has a 7-1 head to head lead over Querrey, and has beaten Robredo six of the seven times they have met. But with the way the Serbian has been playing the last week and a half, those results mean little. If Djokovic hopes to win big in Cincinnati this year he is going to have to shake the rust out of his game and get back the golden form needed to win the ATP’s ‘Career Golden Masters’.
Commentary by Christian Deverille
Follow the US Open Series with The Tennis Review
thetennisreview 
Leave a comment