The last stand from Novak Djokovic

Novak Djokovic celebrates after his win in the final of the China Open

Serbia’s Novak Djokovic signed off in style as world number 1 beating Rafael Nadal in straight sets 6-3, 6-4 in the final of the China Open – a 500 series event on the ATP tour this past Sunday.

It was a final parting shot delivered by the Serb in full knowledge of the fact that he would no longer be the top-ranked player come Monday.

Ever since his win at the Australian Open at the beginning of the year, it has been a strange sort of year for Djokovic. Despite being the top-ranked player in the world, he rarely received as much attention as some of his contemporaries. He was overshadowed at various times during the year and was not the player that people were talking about, which is usually the norm with world number 1s.

Going into the Australian Open, Djokovic was going for his fourth title overall at Melbourne Park and third in a row, yet Andy Murray seemed to be the focus after his defeat of Djokovic at Flushing Meadows in the final major of 2012 to claim his maiden Grand Slam.

His victory quietened down the noise around his competitors to an extent, but it remained for just a few fleeting moments as news slowly trickled out from halfway around the world that a certain Mallorcan from the island of Manacor was pulling up his socks and tying up his shoelaces all ready to make a comeback on the ATP tour.

The threat of Nadal returning to the courts marked a significant development on the ATP calendar this year, for though almost everybody knew that he was going to come back, the anxiety remained over how well he would fare.

Djokovic would have seen Nadal’s return as a very clear and marked threat, but even he would not have in his wildest dreams predicted the Spaniard to have quite such a rollicking season after a near eight-month injury-enforced sabbatical away from the game.

So starting late February, much of the microscopic lens was on the returning Nadal, tracking his every move. Djokovic started the year with 17 straight wins, yet not many will remember that now. That in itself is testament to how incredible Nadal’s run has been.

That 17-match winning streak ended at the hands of a towering Argentine called Juan Martin Del Potro in the semi-finals of the Indian Wells Masters 1000 event. It took a high-quality performance from Del Potro to oust Djokovic and that match will go down as one of the best of the year for the sheer quality of game that both displayed.

As the clay court season came around, Nadal had gotten into his groove with victories at Acapulco and Indian Wells to add further momentum at a time where he normally ushers in his dominance every year.

Djokovic outclassed Nadal in the final at Monte Carlo, the first Masters 1000 event on clay for the year, and a tournament where Nadal had won eight times on the trot. Nadal may have been only a few months into his comeback, but beating him at one of his strongest bastions was a huge achievement.

Novak Djokovic screaming in exasperation during the French Open 2013 semi-final against Rafael Nadal

At that precise moment was when Djokovic’s season took a downswing and began Nadal’s Indian summer.

Nadal lapped up almost every single tournament from then on winning the two Masters events on clay at Madrid and Rome and followed it up with the French Open crown, in the process becoming the first player to win a Grand Slam eight times.

Steve ‘the Shark’ Darcis landed Nadal in troubled waters at Wimbledon dumping him out in the first round for the first time. That would prove to be a minor blip though as Nadal returned to the North American hardcourts in stunning form winning both of the Masters events before the US Open at Montreal and Cincinnati and cemented his status as the player of the season by claiming his second US Open crown defeating Djokovic in four sets.

If the spotlight wasn’t on Nadal already, his remarkable 10 tournament wins this year certainly shifted it to the Spaniard completely, save a brief three-week period in July where Andy Murray mania ran riot (majorly gripping the British Isles). Hysteria ensued to the extent that knighthood for Murray had become a trending topic.

The world number 1 (Djokovic) in all this time had been forced into a corner, left to lick his wounds; wounds that had been inflicted by Nadal and Murray.

He lost to the eventual winner at all the three Slams that eluded his grasp. Now normally, that wouldn’t be such a bad thing; if anything it would show Djokovic to be second only to the champion. But it was not so much the loss, as much as the manner of some of the losses.

At the French, he stood on the verge of what would have been a historic triumph when he led, a break-up, against Nadal in the fifth set of their semi-final. Nadal upped his game and threw everything he had at Djokovic in a bid to turn it around and it worked. But it was uncharacteristic of Djokovic to cave in suddenly from such a position.

At Wimbledon, he lost in straight sets, but in all three of them he was up a break before surrendering his advantage to Murray. At Montreal he was beaten again by Nadal, in a match where he started off making a ton of unforced errors that cost him the first set. At the US Open, he looked to have turned the tide after winning the second set and was in dominant form in the early stages of the third.

A familiar tale ensued after that – Nadal rose while Djokovic sank.

More than anything else, the victory over Nadal was much needed. During a point in time in 2011, the year when Djokovic put together that remarkable run, he beat Nadal in six straight finals they played, and made it seven in a row a few months later when he beat him at the Australian Open final in ’12. After a while Nadal had lost confidence that he could beat the ‘Djoker’.

A similar predicament hung over Djokovic’s shoulders going into the final last Sunday. Had he lost, it would have been a fourth successive loss to the Spaniard.

Djokovic all year was also the hunted. The pressure on him increased with every passing tournament that Nadal won. He would have expected to be hunted, but not so much in the relentless and merciless manner that Nadal did. He saw his adversary bettering his best at almost every single tournament.

In Beijing though, Djokovic looked comfortable all week. And with the pressure of the ranking off (Nadal had ensured he would be number 1 by reaching the final), his body and mind sort of freed up to play a very high level of tennis in the final.

He also served a reminder to Nadal that though he may have been overtaken in the rankings, he was going to be right there challenging for that top spot again.

“I’ll be back” said Novak Djokovic

The victory was especially important as Djokovic was riding an 18-match win streak at the event and was a three-time defending champion. Had he allowed Nadal to burst that elusive bubble, it would surely have allowed more demons to creep into him.

The win did little to reverse the inevitable change that was to happen in the rankings, but it reminded Nadal of why exactly Djokovic is his most dangerous opponent. The importance of the win can be gauged from Djokovic’s comments after the match.

“I needed this win today … It’s very important mentally and emotionally.” said Djokovic.

The win will help ease some of the pain from all the losses that he suffered to Nadal during the year. While not taking away even an iota of how well Nadal has played, Djokovic deep down would regret some of the lost opportunities that he failed to take.

The win against Nadal is a refresher, like pressing the F5 button on your keyboard. The win will serve as a much-needed boost to his confidence and help restore his own faith in himself. It also stems the rot in terms of successive losses to the Spaniard and in a rivalry that has eclipsed the all-time record for matches played, every win or loss is important.

The roles have now been reversed. Djokovic has gone from being the hunted to the hunter again. And this new role may just motivate him a bit more than his earlier job description did. History will show that Djokovic has always come back strong when he has had a point to prove.

The last stand by Djokovic may have passed off as an insignificant moment to many, but it was the moment that the ‘Djoker’ said to ‘Rafa’ that this ain’t the ending of the story, but merely the beginning of another chapter in this glorious rivalry.

To echo a line made famous by Arnold Schwarzenegger in Terminator “I’ll be back”!