Dismiss Djokovic? Not So Fast

So there is this part in The Dark Knight, the second of Christopher Nolan's Batman Trilogy, where in a desperate effort to track down nemesis the Joker (played brilliantly by Heath Ledger in an Oscar-winning performance as the homicidal maniac), the Caped Crusader takes unconventional and extreme measures in order to get any leads. After dropping a notorious mob boss from three stories, Batman continues a torturous, unrelenting interrogation in his demanding, raspy voice:

"Where is he?!"

In severe pain from having just smashed into the pavement from three stories, the mob boss responds swiftly and emphatically, wanting the torment to be over: "I don't know where he is! He found us!" But Batman presses on with the harsh interrogation and, looking for even the slightest bit of intel, makes the assertion: "He must have friends!"

Eric Roberts played the mob boss, and his delivery of the next line was the single best moment of the movie. Stunned by the absurdity of the question, he looks Batman in the eye and responds in somewhat mocking fashion, "Friends?!

Have you met this guy?!?!"

Round about now, you are probably wondering what this lead-in is doing on a site geared to happenings in the world of tennis, in an article with photos and a title that ostensibly deal with Novak Djokovic's first-round exit from this year's US Open. In that Sunday night match, there were signs that Novak was not feeling great, which started to appear before the first set ended. As the contest progressed, it became increasingly apparent that he was struggling big time -- medical timeouts and repeated incidences of vomiting are pretty good indicators. By the time the match was over, people were questioning whether he can still compete for championships in a tournament such as this. In the aftermath of the match, a lot of folks seem convinced that Sunday night's match was the last he plays here. And this has been coming from all corners; from fans on the grounds, to media professionals and television commentators, to former pros who have been at the matches. Two days after the match, the talk has not died down much, and it will probably end up being among the most noteworthy events to transpire at this year's US Open.

Photo credit: SusanMullane@CameraworksUSA.com

Most of the discussion seems to be leaning towards the possibility/probability that Djokovic will retire sometime before next year's US Open. This is where Batman begins to manifest, because at some point in those discussions, someone voices the opinion that the first-round loss here is hard evidence that Djokovic should call it quits... Over the last two days, we have heard this same basic dialogue literally dozens of times, and each of those times we have found ourselves thinking:

"Have you met this guy?!"

It is quite understandable that many fans who viewed the first-round match were rather distressed by Novak's performance. Even if you aren't a fan of the man himself, or don't particularly enjoy watching athletes perform beneath their abilities due to some kind of medical issue, you gotta give the guy credit for battling as hard as he did. This is someone who is worth about 100 million dollars; he could have just given up the match at about the two-hour mark instead of the four hours it took to play out the whole five sets. He could have made a hasty retreat from the court, picked up his $140 thousand first-round loser check, gone home to deal with whatever this bug is, and hopefully gotten it at least managed enough to be able to play in the Australian Open in a few months. Sounds like a pretty reasonable course of action, does it not? ... except there's a substantial reason why things did not proceed in that manner, and it can be summed up in one question:

"Have you met this guy?"

Yes, most people know his records. But while the career numbers definitely say a lot, they certainly do not give the whole 70mm IMAX picture. Even though it was not all that long ago, general tennis followers don't seem to remember the earlier days of Djokovic's career... or they don't give them much weight. Prior to winning his first slam at the 2008 Australian Open, he had made the quarterfinals or better at all of the Slams, and no further. He did not quit.

He also had a huge hurdle... actually two hurdles... to deal with, in the forms of Roger Federer and Rafa Nadal, and we are not just talking about on the court. Those two gentlemen were (and still are) among the most beloved individuals to ever wear tennis whites, and fans were not all that happy with some upstart like Novak, who had the nerve to believe he could be a player of that caliber. Crowds were somewhat indifferent and often rooted for whoever he was playing that day. We all hear stories from pro athletes where they claim that they actually are motivated when they are booed. We do believe there is a great deal of truth to that, but even so, we are guessing that Novak would play every match in front of a Serbian crowd if he could.

Regarding Roger and Rafa's on-court performance and results, Novak did not quit. It has likely been the biggest motivation for him to constantly improve. Along with surpassing the two icons in Grand Slam titles, Djokovic has a winning head-to-head record vs. both of them, along with every other player he's played five or more times, except for one... Some old retired guy who often is seen hanging around various tennis facilities -- for the record, Andy Roddick has a 5-4 record vs. Djokovic.

And regarding the popularity issue... Novak did not quit in that area either. He made a strong effort to relate to fans, most notably by volunteering to play in doubles charity events. And he worked on that too, his biggest crowd-pleaser being uncanny imitations of other players' service motions or strokes. It wasn't something that made a huge impact since the charity events were not televised, but having been at some of those events, we can tell you he did win a lot of fans.

There is still the possibility that Djokovic will be out of tennis before next year's Open, but with all the brouhaha that's surfaced from his opening-round loss, it seemed a good idea to explain that we should not put much stock in that lone result.

Photo credit: SusanMullane@CameraworksUSA.com

To wrap this up, another reason we went with the whole Batman thing is because the Joker character (as stated up top) is a homicidal maniac, and you would not be too far off court were you to label Djokovic a maniac... a tennis maniac, of course.

The time, effort and work he has devoted for over 25 years now surpass anything that anyone else has done in the sport of tennis, and borders on the maniacal. It is what has catapulted him to the top perch in the sport and why, when someone questions whether he can accomplish something, we feel compelled to respond: "Have you met this guy?"

Because he is... The Djoker.

Written by Florida Tennis contributor Todd Pechter.

Photo credits: SusanMullane@CameraworksUSA.com

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