IN THE DESERT, NOVAK DJOKOVIC SUDDENLY LOOKS VICTIMIZED BY FATHER TIME
If 37 is the climax of tennis life, history’s top player has been toppled by Sinner, Alcaraz and one Luca Nardi — who has Djokovic’s poster on his wall — and might be seeing the “beginning of the end"
A trip to Indian Wells features 4,000 windmills and too many musical billboards, including artists who play desert casinos after decades at the Hollywood Bowl. This week at the bronzed tennis garden, we also saw Novak Djokovic lose to another Italian not named Jannik Sinner, which is more adrift than seeing the Red Hot Chili Peppers at Yaamava’ Resort. Luca Nardi is 20 and ranked 123rd.
At home, he has a poster of his idol.
“Every time I go to sleep, I see Novak,” he said. “This is a miracle. So crazy.”
Or is it? In a sport where only one player has won at major at 37 — Ken Rosewall in 1972 — Djokovic will turn 37 in May. Rafael Nadal withdrew from the BNP Paribas Open at 37, saying he “can’t play at the highest level.” Roger Federer is long retired, selling sneakers and showing up on the Oscars’ red carpet in his sunglasses. Is it possible, despite 24 Grand Slam titles and a career of honing his body among the world’s fittest athletes, that Joker has reached the start of his own dusty twilight?
He rates as the leading player of all time, edging Nadal by a mere two, yet his system looks outmoded after Carlos Alcaraz beat him in the Wimbledon final at 20. We never thought a man who rejects Covid vaccines and all carbs suddenly would fade from the top. But he again fell to Sinner, who is 22 and a budding monster, in the semifinals of the Australian Open after winning there 10 times. Now he must explain losing his guile to a player who made the draw as a “lucky loser,” filling in for injured Tomas Martin Etcheverry. At one point Monday night, Nardi hit a lackluster shot after thinking a ball would be called out — and it somehow led to a winner and prompted anger from Djokovic. He protested to an official about a hindrance, which didn’t work, nor did a final score that sent him home with a 6-4, 3-6, 6-3 loss.
The new game is about Sinner vs. Alcaraz, who should play in the semifinal this Saturday and could rule proceedings for the long term. Djokovic has eyed winning all four majors for years, on the same calendar, but the kids have disrupted his formula. One is Nardi, who became the lowest-ranked player to beat him in a high-level event. “Before this night, no one knew me,” he said. “I hope the crowd enjoyed the game. I’m super happy with this. Now it’s real.”
Imagine Djokovic stuck on 24, a victim of Italy. “He really didn’t have anything to lose, so he played great. I was more surprised with my level. My level was really, really bad,” he said. “I’m having a really bad day. Results are a negative outcome for me. No titles this year, that's not something I'm used to. I was starting seasons most of my career with a Grand Slam win or, you know, a Dubai win or any tournament. I guess every trophy that eventually comes my way is going to be great, obviously, to break the kind of negative cycle I'm having in the last three, four tournaments where I haven't really been close to my best.”
He can’t pinpoint his flaws. Age? Now? Tom Brady played quarterback at 45. Aaron Rodgers, after a torn Achilles tendon, speaks of playing two or three more seasons in his 40s. Even LeBron James might defy 40. But they aren’t terrorized by kids who are better, as Sinner and Alcaraz have shown in whopper moments. “I helped him play well, and I didn’t help myself at all,” Djokovic said. “I made some really terrible unforced errors. Just quite defensive tennis and, you know, not much on the ball in the third (set), and that’s it. Wasn’t meant to be. We move on.”
In Melbourne Park, he suggested his defeat “doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s the beginning of the end, you know, as some people like to call it.” Still, he also called losing to Sinner as “one of the worst Grand Slam matches I’ve ever played” after committing 54 unforced errors. “To be honest, you know, the whole tournament I haven’t played close to my best,” he said. “He outplayed me completely. I just hope I’ll get a chance to come back, to play at least another time and go through the emotions once more.” First it was Australia, now it’s America.
Is Europe next? John McEnroe likes to claim on broadcasts that “father time is undefeated.” Now Djokovic sees others holding his hardware. “The process and the hard work pays off," Sinner said. "Sitting here with this trophy now, watching it, I still have to realize it, because it's one of the biggest trophies we have in our sport.”
It was odd, the other night, seeing Djokovic in Los Angeles. For years, he has earned extraordinary praise from a fellow Serb in a basketball uniform. Now, he was saluting Nikola Jokic. “I’m talking about the legend,” he said. “What he has done for European basketball in general is incredible. He has rewritten the history books in the last three years, and he just keeps going. He is in his prime. He’s the best. We’re super proud of him. I’m a great supporter of him, everything he does. We didn’t have too many athletes like him in the history (of Serbia), so he’s right up there. And he still isn’t finished.”
Each man is known as Joker. One carries on. The other is crashing.
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Jay Mariotti, called “without question the most impacting Chicago sportswriter of the past quarter-century,’’ writes general sports columns for Substack while appearing on some of the 1,678,498 podcasts and shows in production today. He is an accomplished columnist, TV panelist and talk/podcast host. Living in Los Angeles, he gravitated by osmosis to film projects.