Magnificent Novak Djokovic

It's getting harder and harder to express the joy Novak has been rewarding his fans with, but I'll try:

10th Masters 1000 trophy after a long break and picking up form on the go: impressive, I'd say!

The draw was not kind: Davydenko, Cilic, Monfils, Tsonga and Fish. 4 of the 5 have been slam semi-finalists, one a slam finalist. Not a bad run.

Then there is the history and nostalgia: another circle closed, for this is the tournament where Nole burst on the scene 4 years ago: young, electric, cocky and irresistible!
And just how much has he packed into those 4 years...what a roller-coaster ride it has been for this fan ...

The scintillating, breathtaking, dream year is continuing, the world is watching in admiration and appreciation.

I admit, I've had my moments of pottering around the kitchen during the second set, ate peanuts and salt an pepper crackers, yes, I even flossed my teeth (I know....)

I think it's time to reach for the drinks cabinet and do something I haven't done since the 3rd of July: To one and only Phenomenal Nole

Cheers everyone

Meh, he's good but I don't think his game will ever excite me...

Chazfazzer wrote:Meh, he's good but I don't think his game will ever excite me...

Can't say my heart bleeds cos it don't

Don't worry, Federer'll give him another spanking in Cincinnati! Roger's just been pretending to be incredibly unpredictable and streaky of late...in reality, he's just been weaving an intricate web of illusion to lull Nole into a false sense of security.

P.S. credit where credit's due; five straight masters 1000s is an incredible achievement!

Chazfazzer wrote:Don't worry, Federer'll give him another spanking in Cincinnati! Roger's just been pretending to be incredibly unpredictable and streaky of late...in reality, he's just been weaving an intricate web of illusion to lull Nole into a false sense of security.

I must say I'm loving Federer's first round match draw

Novak is really riding the crest of his wave for sure. I have to say I actually prefer to watch Fish play the game as he uses more variety but you have to hand it to Nole, he retrieves so well and drills the balls down the lines like no other. I think Fish reveals the type of game that could undo players like Nole and Nadal in future. Its a Fish type game with slightly better groundies....I mean can you imagine merging Nole (groundies) and Sampras (serve, forecourt game)? A player like that will come along at some point and lord help them all!

Well done Nole...but I think Fish let you off the hook abit tonight!

How did Fish let him off when he didnt have serve for match or anything..?

He's clearly not a good enough player to beat players like Novak, however he's solid enough to beat the players below him most times, just misses too much from the back court to really harm Novak.

Josiah Maiestas wrote:How did Fish let him off when he didnt have serve for match or anything..?

He's clearly not a good enough player to beat players like Novak, however he's solid enough to beat the players below him most times, just misses too much from the back court to really harm Novak.

Fish is your 3rd tier player,he's done well for himself in the absence of Nadal and Murray this time.

I mean can you imagine merging Nole (groundies) and Sampras (serve, forecourt game)? A player like that will come along at some point and lord help them all!

Well done Nole...but I think Fish let you off the hook abit tonight![/quote]

Sorry to disappoint, but that's where Nole's game is heading to. Very, very exciting times indeed.

I wish I could see what you see in Fish's game.

I wish I could see what you see in Fish's game.

I think it's the fact that Fish played much the more varied match of the two players. Djokovic is incredibly good at what he does, which is running everything down from the back of the court, making very few errors, and taking the chances to attack when he gets them. The thing is, he rarely changes this up (understandable, as he doesn't need to 90% of the time). Fish on the other hand threw in serve and volley points, more net approaches, and was generally more attacking from the back of the court. I really wanted Fish to win today just because he's always been in Roddick's shadow when he's probably the more talented player, and I thought it'd be a nice way for him to underline his recent good form. Alas, it was not to be!

Chazfazzer wrote:

I wish I could see what you see in Fish's game.

I think it's the fact that Fish played much the more varied match of the two players. Djokovic is incredibly good at what he does, which is running everything down from the back of the court, making very few errors, and taking the chances to attack when he gets them. The thing is, he rarely changes this up (understandable, as he doesn't need to 90% of the time). Fish on the other hand threw in serve and volley points, more net approaches, and was generally more attacking from the back of the court. I really wanted Fish to win today just because he's always been in Roddick's shadow when he's probably the more talented player, and I thought it'd be a nice way for him to underline his recent good form. Alas, it was not to be!

I never liked Fish's game, I mean, it's great that he tried something different today, but in tennis I really place a lot of emphasis on just how the player comes across on the court: the smoothness of movement, coordination, speed...Fish just does not have that bit of suaveness a lot of other players do: his shots are long and flat and his base line game is very monotonous: it's like watching isolated shots with nothing in between, I don' know how else to describe it.
The style itself needs a bit of honing, it's too raw for my taste, but then again, everyone's taste is different

I don't know Nitb, fish plays a nice game and its a shame that it took him this long to figure out he was too heavy to survive an entire ATP season unless he cut major weight. I actually think he is playing some really enjoyable tennis to watch.

That being said I think a lot of people on here are saying that they don't appreciate Novak's style. For me I think that they are missing the subtlety of his game but that is their preference far be it for me to try to convince them otherwise. But is there another player on tour right now that is going to step up and challenge Novak, he is running roughshod over the tour right now. Fish deserves credit he didn't just capitulate and start messing around like Tsonga or monfils he came to play.

Novak, what can you say, he has accomplised something that none of the greats have been able to accomplish with 5 masters level tourneys in a season and with 3 more left to played. He moves now to 16-1 on the year against top ten opposition. What a player, what a year.

What a result and year for Novak - awesome!!! Personally, I would never like Novak play but hey, it is mighty effective these days. For me, his playing style resembles so much of Nadal (not the groundies, the style I mean).

No offense Nitb and Socal, it is just my opinion that he looks even worse than Nadal on net - his foreward movement is as clumsy as an ox!

Fish game is so much more pleasing to the eye but when someone misses so much from the back-court, I am rational enough to not overestimate their chances against someone like Nadal and Novak. But yeah, I think its time for me to stop watching tennis till Tsonga or JMDP develop enough consistency to give Nadal and Novak a scare after Fed retires.

But what groundies from Novak!! Watched him play against Monfils and Tsonga and I thought he would give Fed of 2005 a run for his money - awesome just impressively awesome... not just to my liking though

Only caught the last set - another fantastic win for Djokovic, but thought he looked very tired (unsurprisingly) - one wonderful forehand across court winner, but other than that it was not an exciting set. I hope he is not running out of gas just before USO?

Still he muscled out a win which is what champions do. Great to see Fish having a good tournament, I always enjoy watching him play.

Yes its the variety Fish uses, hisserve and forecourt game is much better than Nole's, but his groundstrokes arent and in this era of tennis its the ralleying that counts more. But you can imagine a player developing who has the attacking forecourt game of Fish (or even a Sampras who was lets face it probably the best forecourt attacking player) and then someone of Nole's/Nadal's/Agassi's baseline game. Nole's game will not develop this way as he doesnt have the natural ability at the net...but this surtely has to be the future of tennis as the next level of differentiation is sought. Some of the volleying Fish did yesterday was magnificent and its a joy to watch hard groundstrokes volleyed back to the baseline, it requires so much talent to do that but its a part of the game thats becoming sadly lost.

I think Nole is great at what he does but I do find it boring after a while...I prefer to watch Nadal out of the two because he uses more variety (more use of forecourt/volleying and more variety of slicing and serving). Nole has become #1 at ralleying, no doubt, but its becoming almost metronomic to watch. He's just never been my cup of tea to watch but I appreciate he has his fans like all the platers do.
Nole plays almost perfect drill-shot tennis, its probably the zenith of baselining. However, the game will adapt and a new way to win will emerge...i.e. the powerful forecourt game! It has to come someday. I hope. Fish showed it can work yesterday as long as you can hold your own at the back and get in. But when I say he let Nole off the hook just look at the number of BPs Fish didnt convert and then say he didnt let him off the hook.

In the end, Nole created history, with 5 masters in one year.

Can he get to McEnroe's 1984, 82-3 (or Federer's 2006 - 92-5)? If he does, absolutely marvellous achievement?

Nole to me is much like a more focused and hungry version of Davydenko how he plays the game, he strikes the ball early and usually has you running all over the place taking the sting out of your game... Murray could learn alot from him if he really wants to grab a slam!

I think Novak actually plays a very watchable game he does rely on speed and consistent strokes but he is a more naturally aggressive player than Nadal or Murray for that matter. He is more comfortable at going for winners early on in points. I think if someone watched last night's final and drew conclusions about Novak's style from last night that it wasn't a particularly great match novak played. There were way more highlight reel plays in his matches against Tsonga and Monfils. Last night was a grinding win when he just wasn't playing well enough to do anything else but out consistent fish for the title. I disagree about Nadal having more variety than Djokovic by the way Lydian. In all their match ups this year Djokovic has been the more frequent and successful volleyer. In some of their matches he has doubled and tripled the net approaches of Nadal.

I don't care what anyone says - Nadal is a very aggressive player indeed.

Timeplease, I am not saying Nadal doesn't play an aggressive or watchable game. He absolutely does, but I would say that at going for winners in points, hitting a bit flatter, and especially in the fact that Novak goes up the line more often that Novak is the more aggressive player. Anyway you can't convince someone to like a style they don't. But I would dispute the fact that Novak isn't aggressive enough or is too defensive. Last night his shots weren't working for him so he settled in to turning every point in to a battle of attrition. It also had something to do with the opponent he was playing and how Fish was bringing a lot of aggression to the table. Fish and the fact that Novak was off his timing a bit forced Novak to go into kamikaze defense and consistency mode.

He was always really good at this gear before, but now he is unearthly. When under pressure and struggling with errors he goes into what I call Novak super safe mode. He did that in set 3 especially. He pumps in first serve after first serve, without going for too much, takes a step off the baseline and just relies on his rock solid strokes, his speed, and his fitness. In the 3rd set Novak kept forcing fish to play 30 shot rallies and with Novak's effortless ability to change direction on the groundies he ran fish from pillar to post. He saved so many fish winners that it got to Mardy. It was those long gruelling rallies that finally broke the score open and fish's resolve. Novak has other gears and can play the attack game. But last night his shots just weren't working and his opponent was redlining his attack game, so Novak went to grind it out mode, which he has become lethal at.

I am not disputing Novak's aggressiveness at all - I don't have to compare players constantly with each other. He has been superb and aggressive all year though 'unearthly' is hyperbole too far for moi!

I was just making a comment about Rafa. Actually, along with a lot of people, I think Nole has out rafaed Rafa this year. To me they are both always looking for an aggressive shot, even if it is a defensive one as well.

time please wrote:I am not disputing Novak's aggressiveness at all - I don't have to compare players constantly with each other. He has been superb and aggressive all year though 'unearthly' is hyperbole too far for moi!

I was just making a comment about Rafa. Actually, along with a lot of people, I think Nole has out rafaed Rafa this year. To me they are both always looking for an aggressive shot, even if it is a defensive one as well.

Why is that hyperbole. When exactly has a player gone 53-1, the only other time in the open era on the men's tour has been in 84. How exactly is that description hyperbole in light of what we are witnessing?

Oh God - Sorry NiB but dooo pass the sick bag !



Nole is a HUMAN NOT a GOD !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!



Calm down and enjoy his tennis but spare us the OTT diatribe!

yummymummy wrote:Oh God - Sorry NiB but dooo pass the sick bag !



Nole is a HUMAN NOT a GOD !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!



Calm down and enjoy his tennis but spare us the OTT diatribe!

Very poor. Not surpised, though

laverfan wrote:In the end, Nole created history, with 5 masters in one year.

Can he get to McEnroe's 1984, 82-3 (or Federer's 2006 - 92-5)? If he does, absolutely marvellous achievement?

OH, dear, will it ever be enough......

noleisthebest wrote:

yummymummy wrote:Oh God - Sorry NiB but dooo pass the sick bag !



Nole is a HUMAN NOT a GOD !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!



Calm down and enjoy his tennis but spare us the OTT diatribe!

Very poor. Not surpised, though

Come On Nole - You know my second best favourite player is Djoko BUT spare us the

*Nole is God* vibe !



It can get a Bit Nauseating after a while !

yummymummy wrote:

noleisthebest wrote:

yummymummy wrote:Oh God - Sorry NiB but dooo pass the sick bag !



Nole is a HUMAN NOT a GOD !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!



Calm down and enjoy his tennis but spare us the OTT diatribe!

Very poor. Not surpised, though

Come On Nole - You know my second best favourite player is Djoko BUT spare us the

*Nole is God* vibe !



It can get a Bit Nauseating after a while !

Yummy, you know I'm a Christian and as such have no other gods before me. I'm just happy, and I think happy in good taste not provoking others.
If Murray was doing the same and you posting same as me, I'd be happy for you.

Also, feel free to humour me as much as you like

If Murray was doing the same and you posting same as me, I'd be happy for you.

Well you do need to have the nerve first of all, without that you are going nowhere (unless you call getting mullered 6-3 6-1 and booed off going somewhere?)... Murray in his prime and losing to Bogomolov, Young and Anderson just shows the level of difference between Nole and the Scot..

Josiah Maiestas wrote:

If Murray was doing the same and you posting same as me, I'd be happy for you.

Well you do need to have the nerve first of all, without that you are going nowhere (unless you call getting mullered 6-3 6-1 and booed off going somewhere?)... Murray in his prime and losing to Bogomolov, Young and Anderson just shows the level of difference between Nole and the Scot..

Well, I've bookmarked Murray to meet Nole in the Cincy final...seems, I believe in him more than his own fans...