THE CLAY MOVED IN PARIS, AND DJOKOVIC EMERGED AS THE G.O.A.T.

Finally loosening one of sport’s all-time competitive logjams, the Serb won his 19th Grand Slam title and separated himself from Nadal and a fading Federer — while charming us in a special fan scene

     Let there be no more arguments about styles, surfaces and sentiments. Unless he suffers a meltdown that lands him in prison or contracts a severe case of COVID-19 as an anti-vaxxer — and those aren’t crazy thoughts, if you know anything about him — Novak Djokovic soon will emerge as the greatest tennis player of all time.

     He will be the validated survivor, not Roger Federer or Rafael Nadal, in what has been an epic convergence of greatness spanning the better part of this century. The truth finally came to bear during a stirring week in Paris, where Djokovic ended the historic logjam by handing Nadal only his third loss in 108 matches on the Roland Garros clay, then withstood the threat of 22-year-old Stefanos Tsitsipas to rally from a two-set deficit and conquer the French Open. This as Federer, nearing 40, chose to ‘‘`listen to my body’’ and quit in mid-tournament, his most dramatic concession yet that he’s breaking down.

     Still only 34, with seven Grand Slam titles after his 30th birthday, the man called Joker is finished screwing around. He dearly wants to be remembered as the G.O.A.T., unlike two rivals less obsessed with legacy, and the realities of age and all-around mastery are taking Djokovic to the summit. With a 19th major title, he is one behind Federer and Nadal and the owner of his second career Grand Slam — the only player in the sport’s Open era to win all four major championships more than once. And if he continues his assault on the sport with victories at Wimbledon and the U.S. Open — and why wouldn’t he, having won seven of the last 11 Slam events? — he not only will assume the total lead but claim the first calendar-year Slam in more than 50 years.

     Anything else you need to know? Welcome to The Summer of Novak, in what is becoming the most accomplished body of work tennis has known.

     ‘‘Everything is possible. Definitely, in my case, I can say that,” Djokovic said Sunday after repeatedly beating his chest and motioning to the sky. ‘‘I did put myself in a good position to go for the Golden Slam.’’

     What separates him from his esteemed rivals, who are second and third on the all-time list in some debatable order, is his unfiltered passion. Hard as it is to fathom that he’d want more from the sport than Federer and Nadal, whose competitive urges have raged like few others, Djokovic doesn’t hide his grand ambitions. ‘‘Whether I think about winning more Slams and breaking records — of course, of course, I do,” Djokovic after winning the Australian Open in February. ‘‘And most of my attention and my energy from this day forward, until I retire from tennis, is going to be directed in majors, trying to win more major trophies.’’

     That drew an unusual brushback from Nadal, who said of Djokovic, ‘‘He’s more focused on just these things and it means a lot to him, all of this stuff. He’s always saying and talking about these records and well done for him … but it’s not my approach to my tennis career. I have a healthy ambition. Of course, I am ambitious — if not, I would never be in the position I am today but I have probably a different kind of ambition than him, for example. I just keep going, keep doing what I’m doing and just try to put myself in a position to keep enjoying the tour and, of course, try to achieve as much as possible.”

     It was a weak move by Nadal, seemingly downplaying the importance of G.O.A.T. status just as his adversary, one year younger, was overtaking him. Said Djokovic, not backing down: ‘‘I do not know the way he thinks, but it is his right to voice an opinion, how he sees me in regards to records. Personally, I do not feel that I am obsessed with anything in life. What I feel is passion and huge desire. I am going towards achieving my goals, and I have never had a problem verbalizing it. Maybe someone cannot say something and then stick to it, but I never found it hard to say, `I want to break that record or reach a certain goal.’ I do not know why would that be a bad thing, not just in terms of records, but anything. Ever since I was a young player, I did not fear voicing my goals. I wanted to be No. 1 and to win Slams. Of course, those goals are growing — when you fulfill one, another one appears.’’

     The new goal has crystalized like never before. With Federer all but done after knee operations and Nadal no longer invincible on red clay, might he win 25 Slams? Fully aware of where he was standing, on Nadal’s former turf at Court Philippe-Chatrier, Djokovic told the crowd, ‘‘I'm very proud, very happy. I don't want to stop there. Hopefully I can keep on (winning) here in Roland Garros, at least one or two more times.'' That would be a salvo at Nadal, whose own ailments are catching up to him; he has won only one non-clay Slam the last three years.

     So Joker has inherited the fuzzy-balled world. Facing an opponent a dozen years younger, he reached down after losing the first two sets — legs slow, head buried in a towel — and mesmerized Tsitsipas with experience and savvy instead of trying to overwhelm him with power. ‘‘I came back as a different player,’’ Djokovic said. “I got in his head.’’

     Now, he’s in everyone’s head, like no player at any juncture in time. At this point, he only can beat himself, and Djokovic would be wise to seek help and curb a temper capable of a screaming fit or a shattered racket at any moment. Last September, he was disqualified from the U.S. Open when he smacked a ball in anger and struck a line judge. Earlier in 2020, with the planet paralyzed early in the pandemic, he spoke out against vaccines and foolishly threw a maskless party during an exhibition event in his native Serbia, where he and his wife were among several who tested positive for COVID-19.

     Last month, he urged the sport’s governing bodies not to make vaccines mandatory for players while remaining mum about whether he’ll ever receive jabs. ‘‘I don't think it'll come to that. I hope not, because I've always believed in freedom of choice," he said of the tour. ‘‘And I will keep the decision as to whether I'm going to get vaccinated or not to myself. It's an intimate decision, and I don't want to go into this game of pro and against vaccines, which the media is unfortunately creating these days.’’

     Can you imagine if a Grand Slam event requires a vaccine at some point — and Joker goes home? It’s about all that would stop him now. In that sense, what he did after the match was as important to his legacy as the thrilling comeback victory. He walked to the front row of seats and handed his match racket to a young boy, whose overjoyed reaction went viral.

     ‘‘I don’t know the boy, but he was in my ear the entire match, basically,’’ he said. ‘‘Especially when I was two-sets-to-love down, he was encouraging me; he was actually giving me tactics as well. He was like: ‘Hold your serve. Get an easy first ball and then dictate. Go to his backhand.’ He was coaching me, literally, and I found that very cute and very nice. To give the racket to the best person — it was him — after the match, that was kind of my gratitude for him sticking with me and supporting me.”

     In that silhouette, for maybe the first time in memory, Novak Djokovic also seemed likable. Oh, how the clay moved in Paris.

     Jay Mariotti, called ‘‘the most impacting Chicago sportswriter of the past quarter-century,’’ writes sports columns on Substack and a Wednesday media column for Barrett Sports Media while appearing on some of the 1,678,498 podcasts in production today. He’s an accomplished columnist, TV panelist and radio talk host. Living in Los Angeles, he gravitated by osmosis to film projects. Compensation for this column is donated to the Chicago Sun-Times Charity Trust.