Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer played each other five times over the course of the last four months of the season. Federer won four of those matches; Djokovic won this one, the one we’ll remember. It spoiled a potential Federer-Rafael Nadal final, but it was a classic of its own—No. 6 on my list for 2010. The match was exceptionally up and down through the first four sets, or at least exceptionally up and down from Federer’s point of view. His serve was on track only sporadically, and he lost two sets badly but still kept himself alive for the fifth. That’s when things got good, as the highlight clip above attests.
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What station is this, or what country? Somewhere excitable, it seems. Whatever you think of the announcer—and he would wear on me after a while—he does bring a soccer-like energy to a tennis match. And his cry of “Djooookoooovic!!!” at the end is perfect.
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These two played in Toronto the previous month and Djokovic was visibly gassed by the end. Federer even mentioned it in his on-court remarks afterward. And there are times in this set when Djokovic looks weary, but it never quite affects him. By the end, he’s running on adrenalin, swinging for the fences, in some kind of competitive ether beyond tiredness. He stays in that zone even after the match is over. You can see it on his face as he approaches the net for the handshake. Djokovic's eyes are still wide, and a little shellshocked.
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There’s a reason that Federer is 12-6 against Djokovic. Even in this match, he has the natural upper hand in rallies. It’s Djokovic who plays farther back, and who has to hit bigger than normal to stay on even terms. This time he does it. Even the two match points he saves are with extremely risky shots that he wouldn’t go for at 2-2 in the first set of the second round of Basel. Djokovic has to absorb Federer’s early punch and recalibrate his own game. That’s what happened when they played at the World Tour Finals, where Djokovic was run off the court in the first set before making a match of it, with great effort, in the second.
Still, his shots on these match points here weren’t flukes. I thought he had been the better player for most of the match, and that had started all the way back in the first set, even though he lost it. You can see in these highlights that Federer can’t leave a ball hanging; Djokovic is going to be on it. The Serb won two easy sets, but as with Berdych and Monfils this year, he couldn’t kill the king until he’d gotten down match point and found himself with nothing to lose first. Psychologically, it seems to be easier the second time around.
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Federer was snakebit in this set; he couldn’t finish a couple points where he had Djokovic dead to rights. At 4-3, 15-30, Federer missed a running backhand pass into the net. On a crucial point later, he hit a running forehand pass crosscourt, right to Djokovic’s racquet. Did he do anything wrong on the match points? He’s out of the first one pretty quickly, even though he still makes Djokovic finish it with an insane inside-out crosscourt swing volley. On the second, Federer does leave his backhand just a little shorter than he wanted, but you can’t blame him for that. Djokovic took a neutral rally ball and hit it on the line. You can only tip your hat there.
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Reason to love Novak Djokovic: He’s facing match points and looking close to beat. He hauls off and wins those two points, and then wins the next point with another winner. Suddenly he’s beating his chest with his racquet, as if he’s been the man all along.
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He was the man in the end. You know you’re feeling it when you can thread a forehand pass up the line and past Federer at 5-5 and deuce in the fifth set of the semifinals of the U.S. Open. In London, the Tennis Channel’s Jimmy Arias mentioned that Federer often hits his forehand a little early when he’s tight. That’s what happens here at break point at 5-5. He pulls his forehand into the alley.
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Then we have the Djokovic's celebration, one of the year’s best. It succeeded in being both genuine (“What just happened? I just beat Roger Federer; I’m in a Slam final again?”) and a little hammy (“I’m going to stand here and soak this in for just a little longer than is absolutely necessary”). Novak: genuinely hammy; hammily genuine. He started this tournament in a mediocre place. He ended it on the rise again. It was a trajectory that took him to two convincing wins in the Davis Cup final. We’ll see if it takes him even higher in 2011.