The best tennis player of all time and currently second on the ATP list won the Masters in Cincinnati on Sunday in the longest match in the history of the tournament. He defeated the current best and sixteen years younger Spaniard Carlos Alcaraz with 2:1 in sets - 5:7, 7:6 (9-7), 7:6 (7-4).
Everything was going as it should, Novak was Novak, he broke the Spanish star at the beginning of the first set in the most brilliant rise of Carlos Alcaraz, and it seemed that after his defeat in the Wimbledon final, he would be taught a lesson about who is still who in the world of tennis.
And then he completely faltered. The Spaniard, sixteen years younger, won the first set and broke it in the second. Even Novak Djokovic, who is said to have made a temple out of his body, seemed to have reached his age.
The thirty-six-year-old couldn't catch his breath on the concrete field from which the heat radiated. He asked his team to prepare an energy drink for him, he asked for a medical examination, his pulse was measured, his head was spinning, everything indicated that he would not be able to continue the match due to physical exhaustion.
Novak DjokovicPhoto: AP Photo/Aaron Doster
For Novak's fans, the scenes on the field became painful. I guess for the first time one of the most physically fit athletes of all time just looked old. His face was red, he was exhausted, he could hardly drag himself on the field, he was late for the ball.
It seemed that out of respect for the sport and the opponent, he did not want to surrender the match, but to lose it honorably.
It felt like we were witnessing a historic moment that we knew had to come, but we hoped would not for some time - the change of generations. Djokovic is the last representative of the "big three" (Federer, Nadal) who dominated world tennis for 15 years, who is still playing at the highest level. Marie and Wawrinka sometimes appear in tournaments, but mostly they are eliminated in the early stages.
Novak Djokovic, Carlos AlcarazPhoto: AP Photo/Aaron Doster
That's it, many thought. For some kid, no matter how good, to beat Novak Djokovic twice in a row can only mean the end of an entire tennis era. Like when at one point the unassailable Federer and Nadal couldn't do anything to Nolet, when he beat them in a row.
According to Central European time, it was approaching midnight, Monday is a working day, and even the biggest optimists had nothing to indicate that Nole was able to make a turnaround. Many must have gone to sleep, it was really painful to watch the impotence of Djokovic, who built the image of a superhuman being in the tennis world.
What happened next in his head and in his body is part of what makes him not one of the best athletes of all time, but a phenomenon: the will to win simply did not allow his body to stumble.
Novak DjokovicPhoto: AP Photo/Aaron Doster
Anyone who has been involved in sports even more seriously knows what it's like when the body betrays you due to exhaustion and how few people can force it not to give up in such situations by sheer will. That famous saying about the mythical Phoenix rising from the ashes could be transformed into "Djokovic rising from defeat": as if after burning on the court, he gave birth to himself and flew to victory. No matter what anyone thinks about sports or Djokovic, such an approach to what you do should be an inspiration to everyone - from students to opposition politicians.
That's how Novak Djokovic won his 39th Masters, the third Cincinnati title and the 95th overall title in his career and postponed until further discussion about the "change of generations".
In one week, the US Open Championship starts in New York.
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Everything that is happening with Djokovic is real, genuine, without a trace of lies and fraud, and that, in a society like ours for the last ten years, is tantamount to a miracle. In an environment where lies, exaggerates, covers up, conceals and steals day after day, in all places and in all possible ways, where hochstapler and mediocrity flourish, where plagiarized doctorates are defended in court, where sycophants make careers, where enriched scumbags laugh in the face of the honest world, and the unbalanced leader tirelessly inflates the balloon of his false greatness, in such an environment the honest, sparkling clean and powerful performance of one of the true offspring of this nation is for some invigorating, and for others, we suspect, it could be worrying
