Chris Almeida: Here we are in the United States on Championship Sunday, and on the other side of the world, guess what happened? Novak Djokovic won the Australian Open. Who could have predicted this? Poor Stephanos Tsitsipas made another brave effort, maybe a little less brave than the last time, but it wasn’t even enough. He lost in two sets. 3-6, 6-7, 6-7. But can you blame him? No one has been able to beat Djokovic at this tournament for a long time. And you didn’t have much confidence that he would be the one. He wasn’t.
So the coincidence isn’t really the remarkable thing here. We need to talk about records and boy does it look like Novak Djokovic is going to break every single one of them. He now has 22 majors – the same as Rafa Nadal and two more than Roger Federer. He is the only active and healthy player of the three. It really doesn’t look like any of the younger players on tour will be able to stop him. So, and I say this in all seriousness: you have to think that the 30 majors are a possibility. When will he lose next, especially if Nadal isn’t healthy at the French Open, which he might not be?
John Wertheim: These are the tributes to Djokovic’s death and victory in Australia. That’s 10 finals and he’s never lost a final. He’s 35 years old and he lost one set and that was against the qualifier where he just went away for half an hour. But for me the question is: who will challenge this man from below? I mean, here’s my stat of the day: Djokovic was born in 1987. So he’ll be 36 this year. And he is the youngest active Australian Open champion.
CA: Eh!
JW: So where will the challenge come from? He defeated Andrei Rublev, Tommy Paul and Tsitsipas, three young players in the top 20, and did not lose a single set. So if Roger Federer retires and never catches Novak Djokovic, if Rafa Nadal has one more French Open in him, realistically Djokovic will retire with the most majors. So for me the question is what is the rest of the field going to do for this guy? Because he’s eligible for the senior tournament and yet I’m not sure if he’s ever been at a higher peak. Which of the remaining 99 players in the top 100 will challenge this guy.
CA: Well, we’ve been asking ourselves that question for a while now. And there seems to be less of a response than there was two years ago, three years ago. You’re coming out of 2021 and you think Daniil Medvedev might be that guy. He has that unicorn blood in him. He has the size and the speed and beats Djokovic in a major final and … then has a very strange 2022 and doesn’t seem to be the same player he was 15 months ago. Tsitsipas put in a pretty good effort the last time he faced Djokovic in a major final. He won in two sets at the 2021 French Open. But now, in his second attempt, he frankly looked worse than last time. And the weather should work in his favor in this match! Djokovic is just on a different level.
JW: It’s just somebody who has those survival instincts and that mental toughness and that ability to compartmentalize. I don’t know how much of that has to do with accumulated hits either. You know, it was Tsitsipas’ 10th straight loss to Djokovic. Does he think he can win now that he steps on the court?
But this is just extraordinary. Djokovic won his first Australian Open 15 years ago. And he lost fewer sets at 35 than he did at 20.
CA: Yeah, it’s just funny at this point. I wasn’t even in high school when he won that tournament. George W. Bush was still president at the time.
JW: So it’s clear he’s going to win this GOAT Derby. So now the question becomes: where does this thing end? You said 30. That doesn’t sound so far-fetched. Also, someone brought up this question to me: in some ways, did he put in extra time? He missed two majors last year. Yes, did he build in extra time by not playing a full schedule by accident or on purpose? He has played in seven tournaments since Wimbledon.
CA: I mean at this point I don’t even know why he’s doing anything other than the majors.
JW: He doesn’t need the money. He doesn’t need the ranking points. He doesn’t need time away from his family. I think it will just be for the rhythm.
CA: It makes sense. Anyway, yes, the sky really is the limit here. I wasn’t kidding about 30 majors. Could he even go beyond that? Of course why not. There are simply no contenders at the moment. He is much better than everyone else.
JW: He is better. It is more precise. He is no less durable. And I just think when you beat a guy 10 times out of 10 over four years, those subsequent matches don’t just start over. It gets in your head.
CA: That’s what people would say about Federer in his day. That he beat them before he stepped on the court. But then, sometime around 2007, Nadal and Djokovic really showed that they didn’t have that mindset. And I think that opened the door for other players to have some confidence and go up against Federer. But none of the younger generation seem to have good energy against Djokovic.
JW: That’s a great point. Nadal adjusted his game around this takedown of Federer. This guy is number one and I have to figure out what I have to do to beat him and Djokovic adjusted his game I will go after these two guys who are bigger than me. And Djokovic hasn’t faced such a focused, determined challenge from someone younger than him.