THE NOLE WOLF

27 straight Grand Slam wins and holder of the first three Grand Slams this year! Having defeated the King of Clay himself in his own garden; bouncing back from 2 sets down, it was the perfect year any tennis player could ever imagine. Seemingly invincible, people despised Novak Djokovic for being so perfect: he would reach the seemingly impossible-to-reach drop shots, return the biggest servers, bounce back no matter what circumstance he found himself in.

All that was until the 28th match. It was the rematch of the Australian Open finals. This time, the coin flipped on the other side. Like last year, the US Open 2021 eluded him. Having won a joint record of 20 grand slams, his sense of achievement might have diminished a bit but the 21st was special! Not only would this win break his tie with Fedal but also give us the first Calendar grand slam since 1969. It was the third time he came close to completing the Calendar Grand Slam but as destiny would have it, the third time wasn’t a charm, so to say.

At the outset of the US Open,

‘We’re Here To Not Let Him Win The U.S. Open’

Daniil Medvedev, On Novak’s Grand Slam quest

Daniil Medvedev, the new US Open champion.

12.09.2021

Trailing 2 sets to love and in the third set 5-3 down, Novak Djokovic sobbed into the towel. We could only see his shoulders shake uncontrollably as his dream seemed to slip further away. It was the final hurdle he couldn’t cross.

Teary-eyed, he played the next game. He wasn’t the player everyone knew. For the first time in the tournament, and for that matter, it was the first time the US Open crowd was behind Djokovic. The crowd roared at every point he won. Medvedev double-faulted twice in the championship game and the game went to Djokovic. Even then everyone believed the lion would come back and storm the game away from Medvedev, that’s the kind of persona he has.

Djokovic crumbled. There are times when even the strongest can melt down. Everyone saw a very different Djokovic, the fragile one. He fell but he did so graciously.

Chasing such an era-defining milestone and stumbling at the last step, it’s impossible to put the despair into words because every step that was taken seems futile. When he broke Medvedev in the last set, for the first time during the match; I can’t express or forget the adrenaline rush I felt, hands clutched, I won’t deny the desperation I was in to see him wake up. Everything that we do always matters even if we couldn’t get what we wanted. We are too clouded by our despair to see it. What he was on course for achieving this year was only done in the summer of 69. For more than half a century no one has even come close.

Quoting Billie Jean King, he said

“Pressure is a privilege, my friend. Without pressure, there is no professional sport.”

Novak Djokovic

The pressure he felt was hard-fought. To feel that kind of pressure, you must give your absolute best. And then to play along with that pressure, fighting the voices inside your head and fighting the booing crowd, you need nerves of steel. And he had it. After every stumble in his life, he has bounced back stronger. He completed the non-calender year Grand Slam in 2016 i.e. he was the holder of all four grand slams at once in 2015-2016.

Novak in his childhood

Born in war-torn Serbia on 22nd May 1987, Novak Djokovic is the current World No. 1 in Men’s professional tennis. Surviving NATO’s bombing of Yugoslavia in 1999, he draws strength from his difficult experiences in childhood. A mini racket and a soft foam ball were “the most beloved toy in his life”. He started learning tennis at age 4. Having no tennis background, he made a steady entry into the tennis world. He turned professional in 2003. After a few years, he made his presence felt in Fedal’s fairytale.

Back since I ardently started following his game when I was a teenager, the most astonishing thing about him is every hiccup he has had in life, he has polished each one of them. When the crowd booed him, he made himself mentally so strong that it wouldn’t affect him instead he drew energy from the scorns and played ever more aggressively. He changed his diet so that he could have immense stamina to run around the court and tire out his opponents. He is one player who is never afraid to publicly show his allegiance. His after-game interviews are so real and inspiring!

Apart from his professional life, he has a beautiful and loving family. He married his high school sweetheart Jelena Ristic in 2014. She has always stood with him as he made his way through the ebb and flow of life. “Djoker”, “The Joker”, “The Serbinator”, and “Nole” are names that fans use to cheer him on.

“I’ve seen some wolves when I was a kid roaming the forests of the mountain where I grew up. And that encounter left me frightened and even more connected with wolves…There is a connection, I personally feel it…I carry that with me and that helps me find that energy when I need it. That dynamic energy sometimes turns into a roar or an outburst but most of the time it’s useful energy.”

– Nole

There’s something amazing about watching a person chase his dream. Especially when it comes to sports, watching my idols go about doing their thing with such conviction and strength drives me to chase my dreams. Playing a sport unlocks the knots we face sometimes. People who excel in their fields are relentless when it comes to improvement. They make everything look so easy and we can’t help but witness their exploits in awe. And yet we forget the times they toiled are what made them legendary!

This article celebrates Novak’s year-long perseverance. It doesn’t matter if he stumbled in the end, what matters is his strength to even chase such a colossal feat, along which he made and broke records and following him through as he did was something that will inspire me forever!

I would like to end this article with one of my favourite pieces of poetry:

Be like the flowing river, Silent in the night. Be not afraid of the dark. If there are stars in the sky, reflect them back. If there are clouds in the sky, Remember, clouds, like the river, are water, So, gladly reflect them too, In your own tranquil depths.

–Manuel Bandeira