Novak Djokovic dominates at the age of 36 – why no one can get past the Serbian tennis superstar

“It is very important to have clarity about what you want in life and understand who you are,” Djokovic said.

That’s exactly the plan in Turin. Djokovic was drawn into the green group with Jannik Sinner, Stefanos Tsitsipas and Holger Rune. Tricky, but anything other than the Serb progressing would be a huge surprise.

This season’s under pressure rating, which has received little attention, deserves particular attention, i.e. the record in pressure situations such as tiebreaks, deciding sets and break points. From this, the ATP calculates an overall value, Djokovic leads by a long way ahead of Sebastian Ofner, Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner.

The 36-year-old won 76.9 percent of his third and fifth sets – a record. This also applies to the tiebreaks, which he won in more than 81 percent of the cases.

And: the bigger the tournaments, the more impressive the numbers become. In Masters competitions, 87.5% of the tiebreaks went to Djokovic (7 out of 8), and in Grand Slam events as much as 89.5% (17 out of 19). If you want to explain such callousness in tight phases, you quickly talk about mentality monsters in sports. A term that certainly applies to Djokovic – and yet only shows half the truth, because without the physical component, the psychological component would not come into play.

“I have never seen a player who is in such good physical shape at this age,” emphasized star coach Patrick Mouratoglou in his “Eye of the Coach” column at “tennismajors.com”. Djokovic is “driven by records and at the same time pays so much attention to his body so that this is even possible”.

The “secret recipe,” underlined Boris Becker in the Eurosport podcast The Yellow of the Ballis that “Novak, at the age of 36, is now dividing and bundling his forces in such a way that he is in top shape for the Grand Slams.”

• Listen now: The new podcast episode with Becker

What is also crucial is the superstar’s willingness to continually try out new techniques and incorporate them into his processes. In fact, there is little that Djokovic doesn’t try. It starts with nutrition, continues through the use of a pressure chamber and perfectly coordinated training, all the way to unconventional methods that critics tend to dismiss as mumbo jumbo.

Djokovic worked with the esoteric Semir Osmanagic, the guru Pep Imaz, the alchemist Chervin Jafarieh. He repeatedly climbed Mount Visocica, which is said to be part of the so-called Bosnian Pyramids. This season he turned heads during his matches by using a Tao patch attached to his chest, which is said to convert the body’s heat into light.

The effectiveness of such measures cannot be verified, but in general Djokovic is “always up to date with the latest sports medicine and he always tries to keep his body fit and regenerate quickly,” explained Becker at Eurosport.

“His body looks extremely young for his age,” says Mouratoglou. “That’s crazy and you can definitely compare him with Alcaraz, who is only 20 years old. You don’t see any difference, even though both have very different physical conditions.”

Djokovic has “gathered the best people” in his team around head coach Goran Ivanisevic in order to stay at the top. Mouratoglou considers the conditions to be favorable. In contrast to Rafael Nadal, for example, “Novak’s game is not painful for the body. For me, he is the perfect athlete for tennis.”

With his agility, experience, cleverness and discipline, Djokovic covers the court better than any other professional. It is not for nothing that the veteran is considered the greatest defensive player in history.

Others may serve faster, hit the forehand harder – there is usually no match for the overall playful package of the industry leader. There is no real weakness in the game of the record Grand Slam champion.

Djokovic has finally ended the eternal GOAT debate this year, the exciting question now is: How long can he maintain his level? Roger Federer was a few months older when he won the Australian Open title in 2018 than Djokovic was at the US Open this season. The Australian Ken Rosewall won in Melbourne in 1972 at the age of 37.

Djokovic is right: “It’s very important to have clarity about what you want in life.”