Whats wrong with Novak Djokovic? Former world No.1's fall explained after shock defeat to Denis Isto

[MikeOne]

Yes I have to agree with this. I would also add that Novak's physic in many ways means that he's always been walking a tightrope. If injuries start to become a factor he could find it very hard to get back to the top. I hope that's not the case, but it's a risk.

Also, regarding the personal issues he mentioned. Has anyone seen the clip of his wife giving him a blast for not saying thank you for her filming him for his facebook fans? Wow! Sounds like she wears the pants in that relationship so maybe he has a bit of stress at home

it's amazing how people point to this video as if it shows there are personal problems. Has anyone here had a girl friend of wife where they never fought about anything ever? what we see in that video is what normal people do pretty much every other week in a relationship.

 

[Federberg]

it's amazing how people point to this video as if it shows there are personal problems. Has anyone here had a girl friend of wife where they never fought about anything ever? what we see in that video is what normal people do pretty much every other week in a relationship.

haha! I know mate, and I'm not saying anything definitive. I'm just pointing out the fact that he mentioned personal issues, so there might be a bit more to this. Just saying

 

[DarthFed]

a lot of talk about personal problems but to me it's just mental exhaustion. Novak's output in 2015 was insane and he won 4 straight slams through the French open 2016. Novak's 2015 season is IMO the best season of all time, eclipsing Federer's 05 and 06 seasons. He won 3 slams and like 6 masters (a record), including EOY cup. After winning 4 straight slams (something neither Fed nor Nadal ever did) i think he was just completely mentally exhausted and will need time to rest his body and mind. This is exactly what happened to Novak in 2012-13 after his incredible 2011 season, he crashed somewhat. It took Novak almost 2 years to recuperate his 2011 form and reclaimed his dominance in 14-16. Now it seems he will go way for 2017 and may reclaim #1 spot by end of 17 or 18. I believe all tennis players have a limited amount of top form output and they will be up and down. This is what has happened to Nadal too and what happened to Agassi. The only guys who have been able to sustain a top level for many years consecutively are Sampras and Fed and this is because of their fluid games with easy power and massive weapons. Players like Nadal, Djokovic, Murray and Agassi simply cannot dominate for too long, their games are about running and winning long rallies... there comes a point where they crash for half a year to 1 year...

It's tough to estimate at this point how much is mental, how much might be the elbow and/or shoulder injuries he's been having, and how much might be age. It is interesting to note that Fed, Rafa, and Nole all fell off at around the same age. Fed was about 28 and 1/2 years old after AO 2010 and his play clearly dropped after that point, Rafa had just turned 28 before RG 2014 and then he really struggled mightily in 2015 when he turned 29 and Nole turned 29 just before RG 2016. I don't think he's moving quite as well as we've seen in the past. It certainly was noticeable vs. Istomin in Australia where he was stretching for balls he would've reached in years past.

Nole is not done by any means, I expect he will be back soon but I don't think he will dominate like we saw in 2015 and the first half of 2016 as he will soon turn 30.

 

[Federberg]

It's tough to estimate at this point how much is mental, how much might be the elbow and/or shoulder injuries he's been having, and how much might be age. It is interesting to note that Fed, Rafa, and Nole all fell off at around the same age. Fed was about 28 and 1/2 years old after AO 2010 and his play clearly dropped after that point, Rafa had just turned 28 before RG 2014 and then he really struggled mightily in 2015 when he turned 29 and Nole turned 29 just before RG 2016. I don't think he's moving quite as well as we've seen in the past. It certainly was noticeable vs. Istomin in Australia where he was stretching for balls he would've reached in years past.

Nole is not done by any means, I expect he will be back soon but I don't think he will dominate like we saw in 2015 and the first half of 2016 as he will soon turn 30.

I think his shot power has gone down dramatically and that might be the biggest thing. Whether that's the elbow or confidence, if he doesn't get that back up it's going to be a problem. For example, I think one of the biggest reasons for his success against Roger has been the fact he wins the baseline struggle because he's able to push Roger back with his power. I fear for him against Roger if he can't overpower him

 

[DarthFed]

I think his shot power has gone down dramatically and that might be the biggest thing. Whether that's the elbow or confidence, if he doesn't get that back up it's going to be a problem. For example, I think one of the biggest reasons for his success against Roger has been the fact he wins the baseline struggle because he's able to push Roger back with his power. I fear for him against Roger if he can't overpower him

Agreed, he has definitely lost some power in his shots. In one of his recent matches they were showing a comparison of his baseline strokes that match with his average mph from 2016 and he was hitting much harder from both wings last year.

 

[JesuslookslikeBorg]

we need to stop comparing Djokovic to what he did in 2014 wimby to fo2016..off me 'ead 6majors, around 12masters, 2wtf titles, record points haul 16k plus after fo, and 4 majors in a row ,,even fedster didn't win 4 in a row.

if the bar he set during then was measured he would be the high jump world record holder. but not wearing those dippy long socks those geezers wear. give that look a swerve.

needs to sort his mental fug/ physical woes out a bit quick though, he's losing rank points so fast.

 

[Moxie]

It's true he's dropping points fast. He loses 1000 this week. He hadn't been out of sextuple digits in rankings points in a long time. He's now some 4000 behind Andy, and "only" 2200 above Stan. I agree we can't compare him to his highest marks, which were very high in terms of dominance, but he's a bit of a mystery man, at the moment.

 

[isabelle]

I guess he'll lose his 2nd spot but the most important for the moment is to heal this tennis elbow, he can't play some decent tennis with a painful elbow