Indian Wells: 10 Postmortems Following Novak Djokovic’s Important Victory

By
at Internationaled.org

Published: March 22, 2011

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I think Novak Djokovic's big win at Indian Wells was a rare instance of an event living up to the hype.  Before the tournament, everyone was buzzing about Djokovic. He was the hottest player in the world.  He was, essentially, the favorite to win—a new role that brought new pressure on him. 

Would there be a "changing of the guard" at the top of the men's tennis world?  Well, Djokovic answered that with a symbolic "bang" by defeating Roger Federer (semifinals) and Rafael Nadal (finals) back-to-back.  He displaced Federer at the No. 2 position in the world rankings, forcing Federer to No. 3. 

Speculation and excitement is already building about how the rankings in men's tennis will evolve in 2011 and who will win the most Grand Slam events.  

Yet, before looking ahead, I want to look back on several parts of the story of what happened at Indian Wells.  What specifically happened on the courts in the games of Djokovic, Nadal and Federer that led to the crowning of Djokovic?

The following are 10 postmortem observations I made of these three top players:

1)   Djokovic's serve was superior to both Federer's and Nadal's—a remarkable development given that only a year and a half or so ago, the inconsistency of Djokovic's serve hurt him against these rivals. 

In the Djokovic-Nadal match particularly, Nadal's struggles to get his first serve in in the second set proved to be a huge factor in the match.  Nadal acknowledged afterward how distracting his poor serving was to him.

2)  Djokokic's ground strokes and overall capacity to win long rallies proved a key factor against both Federer and Nadal.  Even though Federer hit the ball hard and "matched" Novak in rallies for much of their match, Djokovic still outlasted Fed in quite a few exchanges. 

Djokovic displayed ju...
Article Source: Bleacher Report - Tennis

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