Djokovic joins the winners circle again

It was only around May this year when Novak Djokovic was projected by tennis experts as the man most likely to overtake the number 1 position that Roger Federer had held for over the last four years. From Wimbledon onwards, Djokovic seemed worn out physically and it seemed that his customary end-of-season slump had begun even earlier than it did last year. But where Djokovic went winless in last year's Masters Cup, this time, it was the Serb who walked away with the trophy.

Where Djokovic was frequently a talking point earlier this year, he flew under the radar for most of the tournament, with more of the focus being on Andy Murray and Roger Federer, and even Gilles Simon. Understandably so, because this week his play had been inconsistent and representative of how he had played in the second half of the year. Flashes of brilliance, but mixed with wild shots that were nowhere near making their targets.

Mentally he was nowhere near the same player as he was earlier in the year. Back then, he was so clutch that he would almost always predictably come up with a big serve whenever he needed one. If he wasn't playing well enough to go for his shots then he'd battle it out instead making use of his athleticism and consistency, and was reluctant to give away anywhere near as many cheap points.

Instead what I noticed about Djokovic was that he constantly looked edgy, and easily frustrated, and that led to him frequently taking rash decisions in his shotmaking, going for the big outright winner before he needed to. Djokovic is the kind of player that needs to play with raw emotion and energy to play his best tennis, so it is much easier for someone like him to be emotionally drained. It didn't help his mental state that physically he wasn't as fresh near the back end of the season.

Earlier in the year, Djokovic made a point of emphasising that he was the new kid on the block, often commenting that tennis fans have been getting sick of the same people winning, and enjoy new winners. But after all of the success he achieved, he could no longer apply that same mindset, now that he was considered in the same league as Federer and Nadal, at least in terms of their ability to contend in the big events.

Djokovic is the kind of guy that finds it hard to stay grounded. He doesn’t give his lower-ranked opponents as much respect as some other players, knowing that if he can execute his shots well enough, then he will come out on top. I don't think he is alone in this regard, but it appears to have impacted on him more negatively than on others. In interviews, he has mentioned on several occasions the additional pressure that he feels on his shoulders, for matches that he feels he should win, such as yesterday’s match against Simon.

In his post-match interview, he mentioned that he was feeling the pressure which might explain why he was cramping and breathing heavily in that match, having had the day's rest and not being physically tested throughout the week. Then add to that, his strategic "energy-saving" third set effort against Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in the previous match.

One would have thought that his physical problems would have hampered his chances against Nikolay Davydenko in the final, given the manner in which the Russian dismantled a jaded Andy Murray. Davydenko was striking the ball sweetly taking the ball exceptionally early and sending Murray running side-to-side, almost like some sort of practice drill designed to improve Murray's fitness.

But the Novak Djokovic that turned up on court, was nothing like the Djokovic of yesterday, and he came out firing on all cylinders. It was the best match that Djokovic has played in a long time, reminiscent of his early season form and appropriately it was in the final of a big match. He started off the match unleashing big groundstrokes off both wings, with both of his down-the-line shots on song. It was sort of like fighting fire with fire - two attacking players trying to strike the first blow to their opponent, and Djokovic comfortably came out on top in that regard beating Davydenko in the power and weaponry department, and of course executing his shots better.

The way Djokovic generates his power from both wings, it's almost as if he throws his whole body weight into the shot, setting up for the shot early then rotating his entire body forward into the ball. His movement is equally as dynamic, where he is often seen lunging and stretching out his body to the maximum. His flexibility is exceptional and he manages to maintain excellent balance and control on the defense to be able to hit deep, effective shots from that position, where he was often able to win points while seemingly on the dead run. It's not often that Davydenko is dominated from the baseline like this, but he unsettled Davydenko, constantly rushing him and putting him under pressure to attempt higher risk shots in order to gain the initiative in the rallies.

Both players are essentially aggressive baseliners, but Davydenko is completely different in his approach. He doesn't take the same free full-blooded swing as Djokovic and instead positions himself close to the baseline so that he is right on top of the ball, in order to take the ball as early as possible. His approach is more based more on precision rather than explosiveness, rotating his body in synchronisation with his racquet moving across the ball and putting in all of those little steps required to play the perfectly timed shot and generate the maximum racquet head speed out of it.

In this particular match, Davydenko was never able to feel at ease, falling behind quickly in the match, going down 5-0 in the first set before finally winning his first game. His serve was failing him, struggling with his first serve percentage and he was getting punished with his second serve, although interestingly Davydenko didn't have much success on his first serve either, only winning 55% of points in the first set.

Djokovic remained in full control of the match until when he initially served for the match at 5-4, where he showed signs of nerves. Down break point, Djokovic gestured in frustration to the Chinese crowd who cheered his first serve fault, then promptly served a double fault after distracting himself. Davydenko, when down and out, started to swing more freely and generate more racquet speed to get that extra pace needed to hurt Djokovic. But as soon as the match evened out at 5-5, the racquet speed dropped again as he dumped a forehand into the net to tamely drop serve yet again. And as Djokovic did against Simon in the previous round, Djokovic hit back to break serve straight away in the following game and served it out comfortably.

With this win, Djokovic has now closed the gap rankings-wise on Roger Federer, trailing a mere 10 points from the number 2 position meaning that if he can win a couple of matches early next year in Brisbane, he can head into the Australian Open as the number 2 seed. That is, assuming that Federer does not contest a tournament in the first week of the year.