Anthony Hernandez, October 17, 2018

0 COMMENTS

Novak Djokovic is a name that’s experienced one of the hardest journeys in tennis. From his start, he began to dominate the tennis world, upsetting Federer throughout several Slams and 1000 ATP Masters tournaments.

During his dominant years, he won several Grand Slams and was one of few to finish the Career Grand Slam accomplishment, winning all four major Grand Slams at least once. He’s also the only person to have thirty consecutive Grand Slam match wins and more than three consecutive finals appearances at all four majors.

But now, somehow, Djokovic is now dominating the tour yet again. He’s playing vintage tennis and even Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer are struggling to match his court prowess. This makes him both a tennis powerhouse and a betting prospect and when it comes to being a betting prospect, Novak Djokovic is a very dangerous one.

Novak Djokovic’s Rise Back to the Top

Since his elbow injury, Novak Djokovic has only risen back to the top. His struggles began in the Australian Open during the 2017 season when he lost in the second round to Denis Istomin who wasn’t even ranked in the top one hundred at the time.

Then, at the ATP 1000 Masters in the Rome, Novak Djokovic faced a straight set defeat to Alexander Zverev who he rarely ever had any trouble against. At Roland Garros, he fell to Dominic Thiem in the quarterfinals and he also lost to Tomas Berdych in the Wimbledon quarters before finally pulling out for the rest of the season.

He quickly won the Wimbledon title after taking down Rafael Nadal in a hard fought semifinal match where he barely took him down 10-8 in the fifth set. Then, he went on to cruise through Kevin Anderson in three sets in the finals.

At the Cincinnati Open, Novak cruised through opponents like Milos Raonic, Marin Cilic, and Grigor Dimitrov to face Roger Federer in the final who he beat 6-4, 6-4 in one of his strongest performances that year.

To add to his accomplishments, he also went on to win the U.S. Open. In the finals, he easily ousted Juan Martin Del Potro in three sets. No one took more than a set off of him that entire tournament and that U.S. Open performance was one of his best since 2012.

His most recent victory was at the Rolex Shanghai Masters tournament where he seemed literally unstoppable. No one took a set off of him and he took every opponent down like they were a player ranked out of the top one hundred. He took down Kevin Anderson, eight in the world at the time, without breaking a sweat in the second set and Alexander Zverev, despite his ranking of five in the world, only managed to get three games off of Novak Djokovic.

Despite the momentum, Novak Djokovic broke the Croatian down in a 6-4, 6-3 win that led him to hoist yet another title to his collection. Furthermore, Novak Djokovic is the currently the only person to have won all nine Masters 1000 ATP titles at least once in his career.

If this doesn’t go to show you the dominance that Novak Djokovic has over the game of tennis right now, I don’t know what does. He isn’t in his slump anymore and he’s playing some of the best tennis right now. His stats are proving it.

Breaking Down the Game

So, what makes this player such a strong pick when it comes to his playstyle? Why is Novak Djokovic such a strong player right now? What does he have that others don’t or currently struggle to maintain inside their kit?

Actually, Novak Djokovic doesn’t have just one thing separating him from the rest of the crowd. He has multiple attributes to his kit which make him such a threatening player. Each of these have been very important to helping him come back and potentially retake the number one spot.

He’s a Human Wall

When it comes down to the fundamentals of tennis, tennis is all about getting more shots in than your opponent and some players have strategies for this. You can either try to attack them with the ball and break down their defensive line until they miss or you can try to outlast them but in the end, winning the point always comes down to not missing before your opponent does.

Novak Djokovic has mastered these fundamentals and the mindset he holds is to make sure that he doesn’t miss before his opponent. While he can’t hold this standard at every point, he does a darn good job of upholding it ninety percent of the time.

Furthermore, his speed and agility allows him to reach balls that most players wouldn’t reach. He’s so fast and consistent that he was one of the main reasons Federer switched his game plan to an all-out attack where he would end most points at net. You don’t think he can reach a ball and then he ends up doing so and he can do this time and time again. Because of this, it’s nearly impossible to actually beat him in a neutral baseline rally. It almost seems as if he’s a human wall.

One of the Best Return Games Out There

Another fundamental of tennis is the serve game and return game. Essentially, the goal behind two players is to make sure to hold your serve—otherwise known as making sure you win the game where you’re serving—until you break your opponent (breaking essentially means beating your opponent when they’re serving for a game).

One whole set can come down to one crucial break in a match and Novak Djokovic knows how crucial this can be. The first step to making sure you can take someone down on their serve or essentially “break” them is by having a strong return game. In order to win on their serve, you have to return their serve well and this is what makes vintage Novak Djokovic vintage Novak Djokovic. On his best day, big servers such as Kevin Anderson and John Isner pose no threat to him.

Moreover, Kevin Anderson is considered to have the fastest serve on the tour right now so if Novak Djokovic can take down the best server in the world with relative ease, imagine how easy it is for Novak to break a regular professional’s serve. The only player who has actually made Djokovic struggle is Roger Federer and that’s because Roger’s serve is so accurate that he can put it literally anywhere he wants on the court, making it extremely hard to return.

Novak Djokovic’s career has left several legacies for the player. However, one of the main things Djokovic will be remembered for is his return game. Right now, he has the best return game on the tour and he’s had one of the best return games in the history of tennis.

No Power, Just Finesse

Tennis isn’t all about power. It’s about placement—how well you can place the ball and move the player around. While most players focus on hitting the ball hard and fast, Novak Djokovic focuses on getting it to the spot he wants and this is perhaps the most critical piece of his game.

His ability to move the ball extremely well with his racquet has given him the upper hand against players like Andy Murray, Rafael Nadal, and Roger Federer. They can put him on the run and Novak Djokovic can easily return a sharp crosscourt forehand that pulls his opponent off the court.

The reason being is that even if his opponents pull him off the court with a strong crosscourt shot, Djokovic can easily hit something back of the same magnitude with the same amount of power and depth. That’s why so many of the points played against Novak Djokovic have to end at net. His speed and control of the ball don’t allow his opponent to make many mistakes and one mistake could cost them the point.

Novak’s ability to control the ball flawlessly, his extreme speed, and an unmatched return game all combine to create one unstoppable player. They create a player who essentially cannot be beaten unless the opponent plays a near perfect game of tennis.

Is Novak a Viable Betting Option?

Novak Djokovic has ascended the ladder quite fast and that means that his odds have slowly been going up but they haven’t reached the peak that they once were when he dominated the tour and was number one for two hundred and twenty three weeks.

Therefore, there’s still a chance to cash in on Novak’s rise to the top. He still has competition left and right such as Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal, both of whom he has had back and forth confrontations with.

For Roger Federer, Novak has barely inched over a winning record of 24-22 as of October 16th 2018 and against Rafael Nadal, he’s barely beaten him with a 27-25 record over the Spaniard as of the same date. These two beasts are still extremely strong in their day and could beat Novak if he isn’t on his feet that day.

From the early start of 2018 to the mid-season of 2018, Novak Djokovic had little to no success in the field and this drastically brought his odds of winning down due to the fact that he faced more than one upset in the tournaments.

He recently got back his winning record and while it may be going fast, players still have the chance to prioritize on the fact that they can capitalize off of his low odds from the previous year. You’ll be able to make a much larger profit if you bet on him now than in two months because in two months, if he keeps going the way he’s going, he’s going to be much better than he is right now and you won’t be seeing as high of a return.