"Djokovic now has it all: peace and war"

The manchego

Guillermo García-López says

that in 2005, when

Novak Djokovic

was measured for the first time

, on the grass of Wimbledon in the second round of that edition, he closed the day with tears in his eyes.

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“I felt a lot of frustration.

He had beaten Ferrer in the first and was playing well.

I was two sets up and at 5-4 I had a match ball.

So, I made a good first serve and then hit a

forehand

winner

to the other side;

the lime jumped and the line sang it good.

He came to the net to shake my hand, but suddenly, when I was already celebrating, the chair umpire corrected the ball and gave it bad.

When I came back, I was 6-5 and 40-0, but he turned that game around and then traced me back.

It has been one of the few times that I have cried when leaving a track ”, says the veteran player, who at 37 years (236th in the ATP) rushes the last straight of his career and highlights the Serbian's unwavering appetite.

The latter, since yesterday, king among kings.

Djokovic never tires of winning or collecting records.

While I decide with Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer who will be the player with the greatest in history - the first two, 20 per head and he, 18 after the Australian Open obtained two weeks ago - he has made sure that from now on he will be the number one most dominant in history.

With the latest update of the list, Nole accumulates 311 weeks and has definitely left the Swiss behind, forcing him to remember that old video from 94 in which, as a 7-year-old boy, he said, convinced, with a backwards gorilla, that for him tennis It was already then "an obligation" that required him to train at night and that his goal was to be the head of the circuit.

From said to fact, with capital letters.

"At the Madrid Masters, I remember that I was already full and left me in three games," rewinds García-López in reference to the duel with the Serbian in 2011, when they measured in the Caja Mágica before his rival climbed by first time to the top.

Then, July 4, Djokovic was 24 years and 43 days old, and he was already threatening to apply tyranny.

“What impresses me the most about him is that it is practically impossible to find a single hole for him,” intervenes

Alex Corretja

, former world number two, double finalist at Roland Garros (1998 and 2001) and Masters champion (1998).

“It is tremendously difficult to hurt him from any side, even if you play him cut, topspin, to the right or the other way around… When someone is going to play against him, anywhere, he thinks the game is going to be horribly difficult.

When you had Sampras or Agassi in front of you, you knew they were going to let you down on the ground, but he has no cracks.

He is capable of winning everything on all surfaces, at a very high level and for so many weeks.

It is very complete everywhere.

In that sense he is similar to Nadal, although I think that tactically it is more difficult to play him than Rafa.

The only option you have is to despair, the only thing you can do is plant a wall so big that you end up driving him crazy, "adds the Catalan.

And García-López agrees in the technical analysis: “It doesn't have any weakness through which you can enter.

He has been improving year after year and I think he has never lost his hunger.

That's what impresses me the most about him [33 years].

Logically, everyone up there has that hunger, but he has not stopped constantly evolving.

Also, he has been a player who has known how to adapt better than anyone to circumstances.

Before it was played in one way and now tennis is completely different, and he has adapted very well, like Nadal [34] and Federer [39] ”.

The one who gave the alternative to the Balearic Islands in the Davis Cup and in turn achieved silver in the 1992 Games,

Jordi Arrese

, thinks that the Belgrade player has reached the ideal point.

"Subtract a barbarity and, it seems that no, but it brings out another barbarity.

I think he is the one who tightens the lines the most.

He no longer has so many limitations with his forehand, so he can play more on the court and defensively protects himself better, and he has greatly improved his serve and also his volley.

In addition, he has been learning to cut the play with the left.

He was a couple of years on his laurels, with too much peace, he lacked war.

And now he has it all: the necessary peace and war ”.

Always in the eye of the hurricane, for one reason or another, Djokovic is haunted by a fame that he can't get rid of.

“Not so much because he breaks a racket or not, because there are many idols who have done it, but because of the way they manage their ailments.

People do not quite understand how someone is able to recover when a moment ago he was not able to walk or his shoulder fell.

I think it has a higher threshold than the others.

I fully understand that he is blocked, what happens is that he likes to show his problems.

He's warm-blooded, Balkan, he gets nervous.

He, Nadal and Federer are different souls.

He is a misunderstood idol.

Who should set an example?

He must do what he believes and feels.

Nobody should act like a robot ”, reasons Corretja.

“We are in a country where Rafa is, and we are also Latino.

I mean, ours is the best.

Novak is a phenomenon and a good person ”, adds Arrese.

“It shows pain more than others, and that sometimes feels bad.

I remember playing against him in Estoril, and being the game very even, he stopped him for ten or fifteen minutes because he said he didn't see well… He has been going for ages.

Perhaps he has little filter when it comes to speaking, and he says what comes to mind;

Maybe not like I would say to a friend, but if he wants to say something he says it and that sometimes takes its toll on you.

In any case, nobody can argue that he is one of the best in history ”, resolves García-López.

In that difficult terrain of the comparison, the one from La Roda (Albacete) reminds him “strategically of Borg, for that game of forehand and backhand, and mentally of Connors for the claw”.

Arrese, meanwhile, draws the parallel with Ivan Lendl: “They have a similar profile, that warrior point, of bad fleas.

But he also knows how to find tranquility and has evolved much more.

Lendl was not swallowed by anyone on the circuit ”.

From Nastase to Nole: 26 kings, three Spanish

Since the creation of the ranking in August 1973, 26 players have figured at the top.

The first to do so was the Romanian Ilie Nastase, from August 23 to June 1974, and in a Spanish key are Carlos Moyá (1999), Juan Carlos Ferrero (2003) and Nadal (premiere in 2008).

Djokovic occupied the throne for the first time in 2011, and then the reigns would arrive from November 2012 to October 2013;

from July 7, 2014 to November 6, 2016 (122 consecutive weeks);

from November 5, 2018 to November 3, 2019;

and from February 3, 2020 until today.

Last year, Nole closed the year at the top of the list for the sixth time in his career.

He had previously achieved it in 2011, 2012, 2014, 2015 and 2018, equaling Pete Sampras' record (1993-98).

With 18 majors on the card, 36 Masters 1000 (record) and five Masters, the Balkan has another incentive ahead: reaching the 237 consecutive weeks of Federer at the top.

Connors ruled for 160 straight, Lendl reached 157 and Djokovic himself dominated at 122.