Annual Report Novak Djokovic: Top performances in a difficult season; very good
For Novak Djokovic , the 2022 season was one with many imponderables, but at the end of the day it brought an extremely positive balance to light with great triumphs.
by Stefan Bergmann
last edit: Dec 17, 2022, 02:33 pm
This is neither the place nor the time to revisit the tiresome story about Novak Djokovic and his non-appearance at the Australian Open 2022. What is certain is that the Serb was denied participation in the first Grand Slam tournament of the year due to his vaccination status. A circumstance that not only threw the 35-year-old emotionally off track - also tennis-wise not too much went together at the beginning of the season.
At the ATP World Tour 500 event in Dubai, for example, there was a quarter-final defeat against the Czech Jiri Vesely, who was ranked 123 at the time, and at the Masters 1000 event in his adopted home of Monaco, he still had to be the world number one at the time Accept a bitter three-set opening defeat against Alejandro Davidovich Fokina. A whiff of swan song wafted through the Monte Carlo Country Club back then.
But just a touch: Because Novak would not be Djokovic if he had let the smaller and larger dampers prevent him from further milestones. Turning into the right track could already be seen at the real home tournament in Belgrade. Even if it was almost over in the round of 16 against compatriot Laslo Djere, "Nole" fought his way through three-set games to the final, where there was no herb against Andrey Rublev for the time being.
Virtually ex aequo with Alcaraz in first place
Nevertheless: the handbrake on the upper floor was released, and after a very close semi-final in Madrid against Carlos Alcaraz, the "Djoker" bagged his first title of the season at the 1000 event in Rome - the sixth in the eternal city overall. In Roland Garros, the South Slav lost to 14-time French Open champion Rafael Nadal in the quarter-finals - a defeat that you have to reckon with even in the very best form of play.
The big coup of the season then followed on the sacred lawn at Wimbledon. Even if the lawn major had to be played last season without a world ranking and without Russian and Belarusian participation, the title in the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club was a complete success. Djokovic defeated tennis entertainer Nick Kyrgios in the final and with the four-set win also achieved his fourth Wimbledon triumph in a row.
The Southeast European was not allowed to start at the US Open 2022 either, but he won three titles (Tel Aviv, Astana, Turin) and a final participation (Paris-Bercy) in his last four tournament appearances of the year. The triumph at the ATP Finals in northern Italy in particular put a bold exclamation mark behind the performance of the current fifth in the world rankings. By the way: If you add the 2000 world ranking points for winning the tournament in Wimbledon to Djokovic's account, he would be number one in the ATP charts ex aequo with Alcaraz. And we haven't even started our fantasy engine about the US Open yet.