Radek Stepanek soon sees Novak Djokovic as the best of all time
Radek Stepanek gave Express a review of a difficult phase in Novak Djokovic's career. This is over and soon, the Czech is convinced, the Serb will have underpinned his status as the best of all time.
by Michael Rothschädl
last edit: Dec 26, 2021, 08:45 pm
The year is 2017. The situation at the top of the ATP world rankings is completely different from what it is today. With two titles each, Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer were able to significantly increase their Grand Slam title account, Federer led this comparison with 19 titles, followed by Nadal with 16. And Novak Djokovic? With twelve titles he still had a lot of catching up to do with his competitors at the top.
Now, four years later, Djokovic has made up for this gap - all three members of the "Big Three" now hold 20 major titles. The world number one has also mastered a very difficult phase in his career, as ex-coach Radek Stepanek explains: "It was a very interesting seven months because he was in a difficult phase of his career and life because he was on the elbow injured, "recalls the Czech.
Djokovic writes in the history books
The 34-year-old found it very difficult to deal with these complaints: "During that time he has not played a single tournament where he was healthy, so we always had to compromise, and suddenly he had an elbow operation and started very early to play, "said Stepanek. Djokovic did not take enough time for rehab, which is why the injury had lasted so long at the time.
Djokovic also mastered this difficult phase - and emerged stronger than ever from it. Since then, the industry leader has achieved eight major titles, three of them in the calendar year 2021. "It's unbelievable, and I believe that what he wants to achieve, namely to become the best of all time, will happen in the next year," said Stepanek his former protégé.
Today's successes, they should be rated even higher in the face of the difficult months of 2017, as Stepanek says: "I am very happy that he has overcome this phase, plays painlessly and wins the slams." With the big goal of soon being able to cite the comparison of most Grand Slam victories alone: "He basically changes the history books with every slam, so I think he would like to cite the Grand Slam statistics alone."