The decade is still young, and Novak Djokovic has already put together two of the most dominant seasons in tennis history. But as another campaign begins in earnest in Melbourne on Monday, he still lacks two of the game’s biggest prizes: a French Open title and an Olympic gold medal.
Both are clearly within his reach in 2016, and both have the power to give him the sort of emotional payoff usually reserved for players on the rise instead of firmly entrenched superstars peering down from great heights.
“I would not bank on a letdown coming anytime soon,” said Darren Cahill, a coach and television commentator.
There has not been the slightest hint of a hint of complacency in recent months, from Djokovic’s deeply convincing sprint to the finish in 2015 to his decision to skip the International Premier Tennis League paydays in Asia and focus on recovering, rebooting and maintaining his mojo.
Mission accomplished in Doha, Qatar, where Djokovic, 28, swept through the draw last week without dropping a set. His 6-1, 6-2 demolition of Rafael Nadal in the final was the most lopsided result in any of their 47 singles matches.
“Nobody is invincible,” Djokovic said. “But I’m playing the tennis of my life.”
Perhaps it is time for Nadal and everyone else to start screening Djokovic’s favorite pre-match movie, “300,” a sanguinary tale of the Spartan underdogs.
“It is difficult to imagine that somebody can play that good,” Nadal said in Doha, which is poignant testimony from a man who was once regularly on the receiving end of such encomiums.
It is also difficult to believe in this talent-heavy, injury-prone era that Djokovic has now managed to be a finalist or champion in 15 straight tournaments.
After trailing early in their rivalry, Djokovic has beaten Nadal nine times in 10 matches and won 11 straight sets. The scores in the last eight of those sets were 6-3, 6-1, 6-2, 6-2, 6-3, 6-3, 6-1, 6-2.
Such one-way traffic would be enough to break a lesser competitor’s spirit. Nadal, 29, remains upright and, as usual, philosophical. If it is a front, it is a good one. Nonetheless, Djokovic clearly has broken some of Nadal’s celebrated concentration.
With Djokovic leading 6-1, 4-1 in Doha, a spectator shouted at Nadal to wake up. Long oblivious to such extraneous chatter in the heat of his battles, Nadal looked toward the heckler with a wounded look and shouted, “You want to be my coach?”
That cri de coeur seemed even more telling than the final score, and it brought to mind a news conference in Miami in 2014, when Nadal, an athlete who usually enjoys the struggle as much as the reward, was asked if he was glad that Djokovic existed.
“No,” he answered without hesitation. “I like challenges, but I am not stupid.”
The devolution of their once-stirring rivalry only increases Djokovic’s chances of winning the French Open, where Nadal has won a record nine titles and Djokovic has lost three times in the final. Last year, Djokovic dismantled Nadal in straight sets in the quarterfinals, only to be worn down by Andy Murray in a five-set, two-day semifinal and then upset by Stan Wawrinka in a final that ended any chance of a Djokovic Grand Slam.
The psychological barrier is clearly a bigger factor in Paris than anywhere else at this stage of Djokovic’s career, but the bad news for the opposition is that Roland Garros also provides him with a bright and shiny objective, a pressing reason to keep sharpening his tools.
The Summer Olympics, in Rio de Janeiro in August, offer another one. For now, Djokovic has a bronze medal in singles from 2008, but with his ambassadorial role in Serbia and his longtime commitment to Davis Cup, he craves more.
Born in 1987, Djokovic has never known a time when tennis was not an Olympic sport, and he has hardly felt the need to question whether it belongs. That debate, which once ran hot, is over.
“I think over the years the Olympics have taken on more and more importance,” said Patrick Mouratoglou, Serena Williams’ coach. “If I had to rank them, I’d put them just behind the Grand Slam events and ahead of the tour championships.”
Although Olympic tennis does not pass the summit test for everyone — winning there is not the peak of a player’s career — it does pass the test for some.
“For me, the Olympics is the biggest event that I’ll play in my career,” Murray, the defending Olympic men’s singles champion, said last year. “Having competed at a couple of them and knowing how I felt after losing in Beijing, how I felt after winning in London, I know pretty much where that is for me and where that stands for me.”
Since tennis returned to the Olympics in 1988, the champions’ roll call in men’s singles has been a mix of outsiders and insiders: Marc Rosset in 1992 and Nicolas Massu in 2004, Andre Agassi in 1996 and Nadal in 2008. No reigning No. 1 has won the gold medal.
The women have been more predictable. Of the seven players to win the gold medal in singles since 1988, only one did not reach No. 1 at some stage: Elena Dementieva, the 2008 champion.
Williams has perhaps never hit the same heights as she did during that big-serving run at the All England Club to win singles and doubles gold in 2012.
“That’s the best I’ve seen her play,” Mouratoglou said.
Williams, 34, has the Olympics on her wish list again, and the Rio Games have clearly played a motivational role for her older sister Venus, who at 35, is now back in the top 10 and is looking for meaning in the latter stages of her career.
Roger Federer, the tennis player with just about everything, won gold in men’s doubles with Wawrinka in 2008 but has only silver in singles, losing to Murray in London. He has prioritized Rio, cutting way back on his clay-court schedule this year to try to stay fresh and healthy for the Olympics and the U.S. Open, which will come in rapid succession in August.
“There is absolutely no downtime,” said Rob Steckley, a Canadian who coaches the Czech player Lucie Safarova.
The two-week gap between the Olympics and the U.S. Open feels too short for events of their magnitude. The time is also cramped by the shift back a week that Wimbledon introduced last year to allow an additional week for the switch to grass after the French Open clay.
Although Olympic matches are only best-of-three sets, they are draining in ways that no other tournament can match. There are the Olympic distractions, novelties and nationalistic strains to navigate. Victoria Azarenka has talked about the pressure applied by Belarussian officials in 2012.
There is also the fact that the stars will play doubles, any kind of doubles.
“When both Rafa and Roger are talking about playing mixed in addition to singles and men’s doubles, that says a lot,” said David Haggerty, president of the International Tennis Federation.
If Federer does play as planned with Martina Hingis and Nadal with Garbiñe Muguruza, it could make mixed doubles a main event instead of a sideshow. Gold is gold after all. But Djokovic, like Federer, would surely prefer to win his heavy metal in singles.
First things first, however: another Australian Open and, if recent and not-so-recent form can be trusted, more dominance from the clear No. 1.
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