Diminishing returns: Novak Djokovic’s famed service return game shows signs of cracking
2 weeks ago

Diminishing returns: Novak Djokovic’s famed service return game shows signs of cracking

The Hindu  

Over the last two decades, Novak Djokovic has built the reputation of being the best returner tennis has ever seen. The US Open semifinal in 2011, where he saved two match points against Roger Federer; the Australian Open final in 2012, where he came from a break down in the final set to beat Rafael Nadal in the longest match in Grand Slam history; and the summit clash at Wimbledon in 2019 where he again saved two match points against Federer are some of the various noteworthy instances where Djokovic has shown that he is never out of the contest even when he doesn’t have the serve. On hard courts, which is considered Djokovic’s preferred surface as he has clinched 14 of his 24 Grand Slam titles on it, it is just 29.7 per cent in the last year. The 6’3” Jannik Sinner, 6’5” Alexei Popyrin, 6’11” Reilly Opelka, 6’5” Matteo Berrettini and most recently, 6’3” Botic van de Zandschulp in second round at Indian Wells, have all made life difficult for Djokovic. We haven’t seen that in the past from Novak too often, but now that he is playing less, it is a little more challenging to get in a match rhythm,” the 61-year-old Annacone told Sportstar.

History of this topic

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