This week has been perfect for me; I’m not used to watching live sporting events while doing the site. With the Australian Open, I’ve been catching all the matches live and have witnessed the upsets as they’ve occurred. And of all the results these past two weeks, perhaps none was more significant than Novak Djokovic beating Roger Federer. Djokovic knocked off Federer in straight sets, though I wouldn’t call it a dominant win. Djokovic controlled the match, yet he struggled against the world’s top player. But Novak had confidence, and he had the strokes, and he didn’t crumble when he got down a break in the 1st set, nor when he trailed in the third set tiebreaker before closing out the match. Novak without a doubt proved that he is for real, and that there is a bonafide change on the tennis landscape.
Roger Federer is a man in the prime of his career, at the peak of his game. He rarely loses. He hardly even loses sets. He has reached the finals of the past 10 grand slam events, and won eight of them. Such a run in men’s tennis is unprecedented. Roger Federer has easily been the most dominant player in sports over the past three years. As he said in his post-match press conference, he’s created a monster because he needs to win every tournament. Everyone wonders about him if he even loses a set in a match — they say he’s playing poorly. And alas, Federer was knocked off the mountain top, by someone other than Nadal, on a surface other than clay, in a Grand Slam. And that is a monumental event in men’s tennis. Novak Djokovic has most definitely arrived.
(and may he continue his hilarious impressions and karaoke)
