Mike, this latest Djokovic-Wawrinka match is more proof of what I have said about Djokovic's weaknesses in terms of offensive shotmaking. It does not come to him as naturally as it does to Federer or it did to Nalbandian.
Nalbandian had his problems but he would never lose to someone the way Djokovic has repeatedly lost to Wawrinka, i.e. for not having enough firepower to hit through the court against a big hitter and getting flattened in rallies. Nalbandian lost to people for other reasons than that.
he retired, we don't know exactly if he retired for reason or used it as an excuse. Wawrinka can dominate anyone when he's in form, he would've probably destroyed Nalbandian. Remember, Blake OWNED Nadalbandian and Blake was similar to wawrinka - BIG powerful strokes. If Blake OWNED Nalbandian, Wawrinka probably would've OWNED Nalbandian too. I already showed you how Blake exposed Nalbandian by overpowering him...
Blake vs Nalbandian - Blake 2-0
Wawrinka vs Djokovic - Djokovic 19-5
whilst it's true Stan has given Djoker problems, the h2h is still 19-5 in favor of Djokovic, 19-5 is domination if you ask me.
and this is just match-ups. Djokovic regularly bashes Nadal with offense. yet he can't do the same to Medvedev but Nadal can. Similarly, Djokovic can't outhit Stan but can outhit Nadal and Nadal can outhit Stan. Look at what Nadal did to Stan at FO and what Stan did to Djoker at FO. How does that make sense? How can player A outhit player B, who can outhit player C yet player C can outhit player A? It's styles. Players have different patterns that when they mix, produces interesting results. The reason Djokovic can regularly outhit Federer, Nadal off the baseline and hit a ton of winners again them (see Novak's domination of Fed at AO, and domination of Nadal on many matches) is because he is able to force short balls from them, then he hits winners. Stan has an ability to hit everything hard, even from defensive positions so he gives Djokovic less to work with. Djokovic can get many more short balls from Fed, Nadal when he attacks them and often bullies them off the baseline.
Again, it's match-ups. Take Medvedev, Djoker and Nadal. Why can Djokovic blast Nadal off the court, can't so same to Medvedev and yet Nadal blast Medvedev off the court? patterns..
Stan's patterns give Novak trouble, just match-up but it's still 19-5!!!!!!
