Yes the young Serb is quickly getting a reputation for having less endurance then a baby in a warzone (there are no puns intended towards Serbia there by the way) as he throws in the towel in yet another pivotal match.
And the man of steel...the man who can survive an entire season with glandular fever...the man who has only retired once in his career (you get the idea) Mr. Federer certainly had some harsh words to say:
"I'm almost in favor of saying, you know what, if you're not fit enough, just get out of here," Federer added. "If Novak were up two sets to love I don't think he would have retired 4-0 down in the fourth. Thanks to Andy that he retired in the end. Andy pushed him to the limits. Hats off to Andy."
I have to agree with the great man here as this makes it the forth time Novak has retired in a grandslam. After the shift over to wanting to look like Mr. universe in the vein of Andy Murray and Rafa Nadal I was certainly expecting Novak to put in the hours of sweat and toil during the off-season but i'm starting to ask the question:
What have you been doing all this time Novak?
Possibly the only player on tour to rival Novak's inability to scrap until the bitter end has to be Kei Nishikori but even he can be forgiven for still possessing a childlike frame and tender age and of course at 56 places below Novak that guy has a lot less to prove right now.
Carlos Alcaraz
Benoît Paire
It should be mentioned the 100 year record heat wave sticking everything to everything in Melbourne, perhpas this had something to do with [Kim] Novak's retirement. It seems like such a long time ago we were all baiting Murray for not being able to last.
ReplyDeleteOf course Murray was once upon a time on par with Novak when it came to toughing it out in 5 set marathons, I can still remember it like it was yesterday when he cramped out in Wimbledon to hand Nalbandian an easy victory after having that match firmly within his grasp.
ReplyDeleteHowever you only have to look at the match Murray played against Jonathan Eysseric in Roland Garros to see much work he has done to overcome this. That was literally the opposite where his endurance pulled him through a tough match against a home favourite.
Whether it is pyhsical endurance or mental stamina Djokovic is lacking I just don't think there is any excuse for Novak to be giving up on matches like this, not if he is going to contend with the type of ahletes like Nadal and Murray.
with so many good players looking to make it at the moment I don't think that raw talent is enough anymore and I think that Novak is begining to be a victim of his own natural ability.