Tennis Insider - Djokovic serving notice for 2010 is he?

Bullocks! So Djokovic takes down both Fed and Nadal in two weeks and the Paris title, but that doesn’t mean he is serving notice for 2010. Sure Nole is in contention for slams next year. One cannot take the world No.3 player out of the equation. By virtue of his standing in the game and his one Grand Slam title – the 2008 Aussie Open – he has to be considered a viable slam contender. T ‘would be silly to argue against that. But I wouldn’t place so much weight on his clean up act in the last few weeks of fall to mean he is the player to beat in 2010.

The last time Rafa won a title in the fall was way back in 2005 at the Madrid Masters (then a fall indoor hard court event), and Roga hasn’t won an indoor Masters title since Madrid 2006. He did win the lesser event in Basel three successive years, 2006-2008; but cleaning up in a lesser field is hardly on a par and besides, Basel is a home event so there are some national loyalties acting as motivators.

What is the point here, you might ask? They, Rafa and Roga that is, don’t care about this part of the year so much. Well, “don’t care” might be too harsh but fact is they have to think big picture if they want to enjoy a long career at the top of the game. Post US Open, tennis for bigwigs of this duo’s ilk – 21 Grand Slam titles combined – is all about the World Tour Finals and conserving energy for the upcoming season, which almost instantly spills into the first Grand Slam event, than anything else.

To take a look at the past Paris Masters Champions – Tsonga, Nalbandian, Davydenko, Safin, Berdych, Henman and Grosjean (to name a few), and more need not be said. There is a reason why three of Djokovic’s five titles this season have come post US Open.

This is not to say Djokovic didn’t deserve these wins after the number of times nemeses Rafa, Roga and Andy Murray have cheated him in the finals of a Masters this season. He also deserves all the plaudits he’s been on the receiving end of this week for being one of few players fit enough and dedicated enough to make something of the final stretch on the calendar. There is still tennis to be played after the slam season ends with the US Open. And fans should be grateful he at least made it interesting following.

Okay, that was a little too nice for comfort. As much as it is nice for Djokovic to win his first and only Masters title on the 2009 term, ‘tis no secret Nole and I are at cross purposes.  He isn’t one of my boys.

Of course, my stand is not based on a personal sentiment towards the so-called “bad boy of tennis.” Nole has, however, cleaned up his act since his fall from grace at the 2008 US Open – the Andy Roddick incident during the quarters. There is something in that. Paying lip service to journalists and brainwashing media into submission with tactical charm. Irksomely so. Oh la!  Don’t mind me. I too can play the PC game.

The real reason why I am not buying the whole “Nole serving notice for 2010” business is because I don’t buy what Nole is selling. His current brand of tennis is a departure from his game in 2007 that led him to winning his first slam at the 2008 Aussie Open. The game, as it stands now, is as perplexing as his racquet change at the start of the season (trading in slam winning Wilson for mega-bucks-deal Head); a game that is underscored by defensive grinding, lurking behind the baseline and tentative cat-and-mouse plays.