Novak Djokovic carries to his name a mixed proportion of people criticizing his performance and on the other hand, has people applauding him for his extravagant show of talent and zeal.
Facing comments from both sides nonetheless does not dissipate from the obvious fact that the Serbian tennis professional in the past two decades has had a powerful eminence over his peers and is unlikely to put brakes on his pace.
Only recently, Nole won the Australian Open 2023 where he rallied past Greek tennis professional Stefanos Tsitsipas’ challenge in the championship round to claim his record 10th Australian Open title at Melbourne Park.
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In the mid-2000s, the tennis community was decorated by two crowning champions, Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal, who were feared and regarded as unbeatable by their counterparts as well as the coming generation of players and as recalled by Serena Williams coach Patrick Mouratoglou, it all changed when Novak Djokovic stepped into the scene and flipped the face of ATP Tour forever.
In a recent video uploaded by coach Patrick Mouratoglou, he talks about “What is impossible to envision is impossible to do,” and dives into telling a story about a young man, notably Novak Djokovic, who believed in himself.
Mouratoglou, in the video, begins the story by saying “When Roger and Rafa were dominating the men’s tour outrageously, I had discussions with the top 10 and they were saying it was impossible to win a Slam and a young guy 19-years-old suddenly came out and said publicly “I’m gonna beat them” and this guy was Novak Djokovic.”
He then further pondered on the reaction Novak received and continued by adding “The tennis world said, “What a shame, how can this guy be so cocky?” Patrick rectified the then-mentioned comments by quoting “It’s not cockiness, it’s confidence, and he happened to do it, not because he said it but because he deeply believed it.”
This is Serena Williams’ coach talking about the rise of Novak Djokovic in a time when Rafa and Roger seemed to have no competition on tour.
How did he did he do it?
“Because he deeply believed it” pic.twitter.com/rpDKtGG9RW
— Daniel Belfort (@danielbelfort) January 23, 2023
Since then, Novak has decimated challenges from tennis professional touring in the ATP circuit and has outnumbered athletes with his ability to perform at his level-best aged 35.
Patrick Mouratoglou always envisioned Novak Djokovic surpassing Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal
Patrick Mouratoglou for many years has been listed as one of the best coaches in the tennis world, having coached famous tennis star Serena Williams and Romanian tennis professional Simona Halep. He also heads his self-founded tennis academy, Mouratoglou Tennis Academy in Paris.
Following the Frenchman’s comments, it is clear that he always knew Novak Djokovic would beat both Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal in the coming years of his competitive ATP tour due to the presence of self-actualization and determination to reach the top in the Serb’s mindset.
To what many describe as the ‘cocky’ element in Djoker’s attitude, Patrick saw it for what it truly stood for on its face value, the Serb’s willingness to challenge both the tennis icons consistency in the tennis circuit at the time undoubtedly no one was up for the challenge.
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Nevertheless, the path for Novak to collect more titles under his belt seems more than open now with the ‘Swiss Maestro’ Roger Federer announcing his retirement from tennis last year and Rafa currently troubled with the reoccurrence of a hip injury.
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