Novak Djokovic's seemingly endless excellence is the top story of the 2023 ATP season so far

WATCH: Novak Djokovic captured his 23rd Grand Slam singles title win a win over Casper Ruud in Paris.

Having now started 2023 with title runs at the Australian Open and Roland Garros, Novak Djokovic has now earned more Grand Slam singles championships than any man in tennis history. In addition to Djokovic’s seemingly endless excellence, the men’s game currently boasts several other intriguing plot lines. With the year’s first two majors concluded and Wimbledon on the horizon, Joel Drucker explores the landscape.

1. Djokovic authoring not merely pages or chapters, but volumes, of tennis history

When Djokovic won the year’s first two majors in 2016, he was the first man to accomplish that feat since Jim Courier a lengthy 24 years earlier. A quick half-decade later, he again emerged triumphant in Australia and at Roland Garros. Now, two years following that run, Djokovic has once more put himself halfway towards the incredible feat of a calendar-year Grand Slam, something no man has done since Rod Laver in 1969.

Djokovic has now won a men’s record 23 Grand Slam singles titles, snapping a tie with Rafael Nadal, three ahead of Roger Federer. His recent victory at Roland Garros makes him the only man in tennis history to have won each singles major three times. The tally: three at Roland Garros, seven at Wimbledon, three at the US Open, 10 at the Australian Open.

“He has this software in his head that he can switch when a Grand Slam comes,” said Djokovic’s coach, Goran Ivanisevic. “Grand Slam is a different sport comparing to other tournaments. He switch his software. The day we arrived here, he was better, he was more motivated, he was more hungry.”

But quantitative achievements are only part of the way Djokovic has redefined greatness. “I don't want to say that I am the greatest,” he said, “because I feel, I've said it before, it's disrespectful towards all the great champions in different eras of our sport that was played in completely different way than it is played today. So I feel like each great champion of his own generation has left a huge mark, a legacy, and paved the way for us to be able to play this sport in such a great stage worldwide.”

Consider the contributions of other tennis titans. Don Budge, Jack Kramer, Bjorn Borg, and Monica Seles were stylistic innovators. Many Australians—Laver, Frank Sedgman, Ken Rosewall, Roy Emerson, John Newcombe and Margaret Court among the most notable—upped the ante on fitness and redefined what it means to have a first-rate competitive temperament. Billie Jean King, Chrissie Evert, Jimmy Connors, Pete Sampras, Stefanie Graf, Federer and Nadal pursued epic excellence. Martina Navratilova and Ivan Lendl took on and off-court training and discipline to new heights. Pancho Gonzales, John McEnroe and Serena Williams knew how to bring their best when it mattered most.

Djokovic has long embodied many of the traits of those legends. But perhaps most of all, Djokovic’s legacy will be defined by his never-ending quest to improve. You’d be hard-pressed to find any champion who has so continually explored new approaches to getting better and then implementing them with supreme devotion and first-rate execution. After all, having spent his entire career vying with the brilliance of Federer and Nadal, what other choice did Djokovic have given his desire to contend for major titles?

“Well, the truth is that I have always compared myself to these guys,” said Djokovic, “because those two are the two greatest rivals I ever had in my career. I have said it before many times that they have actually defined me as a player, and all the success that I have, you know, they have contributed to it, in a way, because of the rivalries and the matchups that we had. Countless hours of thinking and analyzing and what it takes to win against them on the biggest stage, you know, for me and my team, it was just those two guys were occupying my mind for the last 15 years quite a lot.”

This year’s Roland Garros title run also showed that at the age of 36, Djokovic remains fresh. (How fitting that Tom Brady, Djokovic’s fellow master of longevity, was on-site to watch the final.) Perhaps the pandemic-related absences he’s had from several hardcourt events in recent years have proven a blessing and kept Djokovic from accumulating too much mileage on his tennis odometer. Based on what Djokovic has shown this year in Melbourne and Paris, it’s easy to envision him competing at this high level for at least another two to three years–8-12 more appearances at the majors.

2. Glittering diamonds still need polishing

The day the Roland Garros draw was made, I made a prediction on this site: Carlos Alcaraz would beat Holger Rune in the men’s singles final. Clearly, this was a vote on behalf of the youth movement. Yet while each went far–particularly for a 20-year-old–there emerged distinct improvement areas.

Rune played excellent tennis to reach the quarterfinals, most notably when he took nearly four hours to win a fourth-round tussle versus Francisco Cerundolo that ended with a sublime fifth-set tiebreak. But in his next match, versus Casper Ruud, Rune came up flat. He lost the first two sets badly, 6-1, 6-2, recovered well enough to take the third, but ended up losing in the fourth.

Alcaraz also shined brightly, only dropping one set on the way to the semis. But then, versus Djokovic, after having won the second set to level a sparkling and highly anticipated encounter, everything from the occasion to the weather to an experienced, in-form opponent proved all too much. By early in the third set, cramps having kicked in, Alcaraz had ceased to be a factor and lost the next two sets, 6-1, 6-1. Said Alcaraz, “I have to take lesson from that experience and, you know, it's something that I have to deal, and of course I will have more experience in the next match.”

So it goes that these two will each address matters related to fitness, recovery, mid-match energy management, and perhaps other topics we might never know about. In all those areas, they might learn much from Djokovic, who in the early years of his career also grappled with issues that had little to do with how he hit the ball.

3. American men: Show me the grass?

The writer Henry James once said, “It’s a complex fate, being an American.” This premise is applicable to the current crop of American male tennis players and their 2023 Grand Slam efforts. The Australian Open was a bonanza. For the first time in 27 years, eight American men advanced to at least the third round. Ben Shelton and Sebastian Korda reached the quarters. Tommy Paul made it to the semis.

But things were different at Roland Garros. Only three Americans–Taylor Fritz, Frances Tiafoe, Marcos Giron–got to the third round. None went further.

“Me, Taylor, Tommy, we're all playing some great tennis that we're only going to get better and be in these positions and keep going,” said Tiafoe following his loss to Alexander Zverev. “I'm not really concerned about being the only American. I'm not really concerned about being the last American in the Slam. I just want to see all those guys do well, and hopefully by the time we're all done we all get one.”

Next comes Wimbledon and its oxymoronic-sounding surface: slow grass. Fritz last year reached the quarters, losing to Rafael Nadal in a fifth-set tiebreaker. Others such as Tiafoe, Paul, Shelton and Korda all have excellent skills in the front part of the court so essential even on contemporary grass.

From the expectations generated in Melbourne, to the frustrations of Paris, what’s to come in London?

4. One-handed backhands remain endangered

Over the course of winning three matches and nine straight sets at Roland Garros versus three seeded players who’ve all been ranked inside the Top 20, Alcaraz deeply exposed how the one-handed backhands of Stefanos Tsitsipas, Lorenzo Musetti and Denis Shapovalov are not forceful enough to generate sufficient traction at the beginning, middle or end of a rally.

Sure, applaud the occasional sparkling winner; it’s the non-quotidian exception that proves the rule of its limits. The one-handed backhand may be sweet to observe, but in contemporary professional tennis, a sweet tooth like that is a cavity waiting to happen. As a primary weapon, it’s highly unsustainable in the face of a two-hander’s ability to generate repeated power and direction through all parts of the court.

Of the last 22 majors, starting at the 2017 US Open, only two men's singles titles have been won by players with one-handed backhands. One was the incandescent Federer, winner at the 2018 Australian Open. The other was Dominic Thiem, the 2020 US Open champion who has been working hard to find his way back into the Top 50.

Note that I said the one-hander is not a viable primary weapon. As such champions as Nadal, Djokovic, Ashleigh Barty and Mats Wilander have shown, incorporating a one-handed slice alongside a two-hander can be quite effective as everything from a low-bouncing disruptor, to a stretched-out scramble, to the best way to hit the increasingly popular drop shot.