Novak Djokovic Will Play The Tokyo Olympics

De Minaur tested positive and is out of Japan.

July 15th, 2021 at 8:12 pm

Ba cahk!! Cocka doodle doo.
Who woulda guessed after saying 50/50?
#everybody

July 15th, 2021 at 9:55 pm

Can you imagine if Novak and Andy meet in the first round? Someone’s winning streak will be ending if that happens.

July 15th, 2021 at 11:12 pm

So happy to see Novak does not fear ducking the Olympics! Win or lose, this honors who he is – a competitor that does not duck events for fear he will lose. And in his heyday, Fed was willing to go into RG and tell Rafa to bring it! Lose or not. Because that was Roger’s spirit.
It is rare that people like Novak, Andy, Rafa, every nation’s best do not wish to stand for their countrymen.
A “calendar year Slam” is something that may have met something when pro tennis season ended after 6 months, then restarted the next year in Australia. but not really as reality is that A-U is no harder random probability than F-W or W-A.
Martina Navratilova won 6 in a row and the powers that be said she did nothing because the AO was rearranged due to fires impacting the school year, so it wasn’t a ‘true’ year Slam. Her 6 in a row, noyt as good as 4 in a row starting in one arbitrary place.
. So four in a row in any order, with any Olympics or Championships will be most likely be as good as a Calendar Year GS in post-career debates.

July 15th, 2021 at 11:18 pm

I don’t know why the fans of, soon to be 40 years old, are so invested in who is going to play Olympics when that even is completely unimportant in tennis, I mean, if it is that important their man sure would make an effort to win a medal, I mean he played Olympics since Sydney 2000, but yet haven’t won any medal (in singles), Nole has bronze, no?
I guess, soon to be 40 years old didn’t care for Olympics, he went to Olympics to play just for fun…and to meet his future wife (Sydney 2000), no?

July 15th, 2021 at 11:30 pm

Wog Boy, glad you have gathered yourself a bit after Wimbledon and being down a bit in that time, and defensive. . I thought you would be giddy!
On Covid…I mean…how frikkin dumb is it to be on a global tour and not vaccinated!!! About as dumb as absent mindedly hitting a line judge in the throat with a ball.
WTF is in the water down there? How do you explain the IQ of Kyrgios, Tomic, De Minaur?
At least I’d trust Ashleigh to handle matters than those 3 Stooges.

July 15th, 2021 at 11:34 pm

This is going to be Serbian unofficial anthem in Tokyo, you can see and hear it here performed by Djokovic family during celebration of FO win in Srdjan restaurant month ago, nice family and proud mum:

https://youtu.be/3gSjVbzQ3NQ

July 15th, 2021 at 11:39 pm

CF1,
Defence is the best offence in every sport, particularly sport that is called life.
I am pretty sure Dave, you and few others can read me😉

July 15th, 2021 at 11:44 pm

Serbs are uniquely talented in music too. Can you imagine a Serb version of the mess named Taylor Swift?

July 16th, 2021 at 12:01 am

My apologies, I don’t know how I missed it, but there is a silver medal in certain one resume, well done.

July 16th, 2021 at 12:15 am

Dave and CF1,
Joking aside, my mind kept telling that it’s not good to go to Japan after two hard fought GSs and hardly any decent rest (Japan is next week) and before Northamerican tour, but my heart was telling me he has to go.
I don’t know how is it going to affect him, before USO, if he loses against one of the major competitors that could wait for him later in NY, we all know how devastating were all his three previous losses at Olympics.
It is what it is, I think Srdjan prevailed, since I think that Nole was genuinely in two minds, similar as me, mind is telling you “don’t go” but heart is telling you “go”.
Now, it’s done and dusted, we’ll pray for the best.

July 16th, 2021 at 12:35 am

WB – Great credit to Novak for also maybe thinking a Novak confirmation helped ticket sales, ratings and likely gained him some future reward in some form in Japan for adding to the prestige of the Games. Despite Covid, Novak and others show nations aren’t sending their B Teams to Japan.
Novak’s two agents are licking their chops at opportunities past Seiko with Japanese sponsor elites in other industries not yet ‘covered’
with gear or preference deals.

July 16th, 2021 at 2:10 am

@ Truth
Even if you don’t understand Serbian the song and lyrics makes you feel, well “different”, the song was made in a literary few days time with less than enough equipment, as you will see in this original clip, as I said, pity you won’t understand the part at 2:47 onwards, where singer is talking lyrics and they represent exactly who Nole is, but you can feel them, I am more than sure, try, here it is, enjoy it:

https://youtu.be/SzoRsWi7wZA

July 16th, 2021 at 3:18 am

Go for it Novak…BE THE GOLDEN GOAT! ;-)

July 16th, 2021 at 11:25 am

WogBoy,

I don’t see Djokovic losing to Tsitsipas in Japan. Tsitsipas has now lost 3 of his last 4 matches and lost to a Serbian player with a similar game to Novak today. Berrettini won’t beat Djokovic on hard courts. Zverev serves to many double faults. Medvedev is the one with the best chance. But that wouldn’t be until the finals. Rublev has a one dimensional game style that doesn’t match up against Novak at all. Am I missing any contenders? The hardest draw for Djokovic that I can think of is Karatsev in an earlier round, Berrettini QF, Zverev SF, Medvedev Final.

July 16th, 2021 at 11:42 am

Whoah, Dave, Whoah! Draw isn’t until July 22nd!
Surely some of those others will go by the way of fratricide, guaranteed, before Djokovic sees them.
If he sees them. I don’t know if anybody worried about Novak v. Delpo in the last Olympics, he wasn’t on the radar screen. Bad karma for Novak. Maybe he deserves a bit of luck the other way after that draw.

July 16th, 2021 at 3:44 pm

In 3 sets anyone can win.
Also, a person named Monica Puig beat everyone.

July 16th, 2021 at 3:55 pm

You’re right. Anyone can win. Even the final is only going to be 3 sets this year. No more best of 5 finals.

July 16th, 2021 at 4:25 pm

“Anyone can win”. C’mon Dave! :) You Djoker fans are just getting silly now. Must be the weak era we are in.:)

July 16th, 2021 at 6:06 pm

Exactly Django and Dave, in best of three anything is possible.
Dave, I was shocked last night when I checked results and saw that Tsitsi lost to Filip!
It must be Paris hangover since Filip is not the calibar of the player to beat Tsitsi, particularly on clay and mentioning clay I don’t get it why Tsisi decided to play Hamburg at the first place, CC season is finished and he is due to fly to Japan to play on the very fast Tokyo HC.
The only explanation is that he is desperate for the points and thought that Hamburg 500 will be walk in the park, so why not take it? Well, he miscalculated, plus, I think it’s time for him to find proper coach, not that conman and gigolo, Mouratoglou.

July 16th, 2021 at 6:22 pm

CF1,
Btw CF1, I think that Seiko and Nole parted ways, I haven’t seen Seiko advertisement on Nole gear, maybe Nole is leaving room for Rolex and new logo “Numbers do Matter”😉
I personally would prefer TAGHeuer, suites perfectly Nole’s personality, that’s the brand of my choice since the times of Steve McQueen, my favourite actor.

July 16th, 2021 at 7:22 pm

@Wogboy

“ I mean he played Olympics since Sydney 2000, but yet haven’t won any medal (in singles),”

False.

July 17th, 2021 at 12:32 am

Nole is tired for sure and I think, he took into consideration not to participate, but he would have had regrets about it, so it is the best for him to go there.

July 17th, 2021 at 4:44 am

WogBoy,

Tsitsipas is my least favourite player of the young generation. His behaviour was horrible during the match. I watched the match. I just read that Filip would like an apology. He was talking loudly when Filip was about to do an overhead smash. He took a 10 minute bathroom break. He got a warning for coaching. He lost a serve for the time clock running out. He was late I don’t know how many times. Filip honestly hit his backhand down the line better than Djokovic ever has. He hit over 20 winners with his backhand down the line ON CLAY! When does that ever happen? Tsitsipas and Zverev both seem to have this big sense of entitlement. Like they should be winning grand slams just because they are them. They aren’t grateful the way some of the other younger players are. They expect everything now. They don’t take losses very well. Maybe their attitude will change. And I won’t judge them for this. Everyone makes mistakes and has regrets, especially when they are younger. That’s how it goes sometimes. But I was very impressed how Filip handled himself when this was going on. He fought hard to stay focused and not let these things get to him. He showed so much mental toughness, because in the 3rd set, one thing after another was happening with Tsitsipas.

July 17th, 2021 at 9:22 am

Where is faker’s boyfriend Pepe?

July 17th, 2021 at 2:13 pm

Dave,
I haven’t seen the match, only the highlights so I really didn’t have a clue how Tsitsi behaved. Thanks for the info and I agree with you about him, he is definitely not the player I would cheer and that started with his incident with Medvedev few years back, when Medvedev wanted to bash him up for calling him “bullsh.t Russian” during the match and chair umpire had to hold him while Tsitsi like a coward packed up and left the court in a hurry.
You are correct, Filip gave an interview in which he said that he doesn’t know why Stefanos behaved the way he behaved, that he didn’t expect that from him, that it was hard for him to stay focused and he expects Stefanos to apologise to him one day.
As for BHDTL, Filip spoke about that too, he said he knew that Stefanos like to play from his BH corner and likes to run around his BH to hit FH so his plan was to pin him in BH corner, wait to open the court and then go for BHDTL, which he obviously executed to perfection, according to you. But, if you ask me, I think that he was given a tip from his best friend and mentor how to play Tsitsi, you know who is his best friend, don’t you?😉

July 17th, 2021 at 5:40 pm

Novak Djokovic?

That’s my biggest issue with Novak. I wish he would hit the backhand down the line more like Filip did. If he used it to hit winners more often, Thiem, Wawrinka and Tsitsipas wouldn’t be taking him to 5 sets and sometimes beating him. Filip played so freely and completely committed to the BHDTL. Maybe Nole can take the advice he gave Filip and apply it to himself.

July 17th, 2021 at 8:41 pm

Good one Dave👍

Yes, Nole has soft spot for Filip, he gave him apartment to live when he came to Belgrade from his town, ha paid for his coaches at one stage, found him sponsors etc.

Filip was very promising player, but unfortunately hadn’t lived to his potential, mostly due to (probably) country town boy coming to big city sindrom.

Belgrade is a big city that lives 24/7, literally so, with lot of traps for young and inexperienced young people coming to live in the city, think about “Midnight cowboy”.
Filip fell into one of those traps, young, good looking, healthy young man, tennis player that started to make some inroads on tennis circuit and some money. Girls loved him and he loved them back and night life in Belgrade is next to none, the rest is the history now.

He is 29, not much time left, I would love him to win Hamburg, but Busta will prove too good…or maybe not, fingers crossed.

July 17th, 2021 at 9:10 pm

I heard the food is so good in Nis and Belgrade. And Belgrade has a lot of bakeries. And the tourists were saying that people in Belgrade and other parts of Serbia were very helpful and very honest. They were happy to help.

July 17th, 2021 at 11:22 pm

That’s about right Dave.

July 18th, 2021 at 1:05 am

If Faker contracts Covid will he admit it or carry on as usual ? Hmmmm. I wonder.

July 18th, 2021 at 4:10 pm