This time 12 years ago, Novak Djokovic was a mere fly on the windscreen of Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal.
At that point, Federer and Nadal had combined to win 25 of the last 30 grand slam tournaments and theirs was widely hailed the best rivalry in tennis history, with the two in a race to become the greatest tennis player of all time.
Djokovic had beaten Federer en route to his maiden major at the 2008 Australian Open, but his win-loss record against the Swiss maestro stood at 6-13, while against Nadal it was 7-16.
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Tempers flare in Djokovic demolition | 00:52
He and Andy Murray were comfortably the best two players not named Federer and Nadal, but it was a fait accompli neither would ever come close to the all-conquering heights of those two titans.
Djokovic’s barnstorming journey towards turning the tennis axis on its head began at the 2011 Australian Open, so it’s only fitting it’s in Melbourne 12 years later he solidifies his status as the greatest player of all time.
That 2011 Australian Open run saw Djokovic take out Federer in the semi-finals and Murray in the final, but it proved the mere prelude to one of the greatest seasons in tennis history.
By the end of it, he had won three of the four majors, defeating Nadal on six consecutive occasions – including on clay – while going 4-1 against Federer, winning 10 titles and compiling a 41-match winning streak before eventually finishing 70-6.
Another of his most defining wins came in Australia in 2012, when he defeated Nadal for a seventh consecutive time, this time in the longest major final in history, a herculean battle lasting five hours and 53 minutes.
That match came off the heels of a semi-final epic against Murray in which Djokovic prevailed in four hours and 50 minutes.
Once panned for his tendency to retire from matches break under pressure from Federer and Nadal, Djokovic had transformed himself into one of the most remarkable and durable athletes of a generation.
While perhaps the most complete tennis player to ever take the court, Djokovic’s greatest strength in his more than decade-long period of dominance has been between the ears.
On numerous occasions he has staved off match points before coming through to win major tournaments, doing that against Federer in two consecutive years at the US Open and then in a pulsating Wimbledon final.
He has been comfortably the least-revered of the ‘Big Three’ from a crowd perspective and has faced parochial crowds cheering for Federer and Nadal and against him virtually every time he has taken to the court against them.
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Watch any part of the Wimbledon final in 2019 against Federer and you’ll get a sense of that adversity at its peak, with Djokovic later admitting he pretended the crowd was chanting his name rather than his opponent’s in order to cope.
It’s an element Djokovic has had to deal with that Federer and Nadal simply have not and it makes his successes against them and in tennis all the more remarkable.
That single-mindedness and refusal to cede ground has at times hindered his career, however, most notably when his rigid stance against getting a Covid-19 vaccine saw him deported from Australia in 2022 and miss out on two majors as a result, while as things stand he’ll miss the US Open again this yer.
It’s also that confidence and desire that perhaps riled much of the tennis community when he burst onto the scene.
“In the beginning I was this confident young player that was saying yes I respect Roger and Rafa but I can win against them, I can be number 1,” Djokovic reflected in 2020 during an Instagram Live with Stan Wawrinka.
“I was feeling like it was me against the world, I don’t feel that way anymore.”
On the court, however, that mindset virtually always helps him.
That mindset, coupled with his profound tennis ability, saw him turn what was a 6-13 record at the end of 2010 into a 27-23 one by the time they played off for the last time – fittingly at the Australian Open.
Similarly, he has turned a losing record against Nadal into a winning one, albeit by the narrowest of margins at 30-29, with that rivalry in all likelihood overtaking Federer and Nadal’s as the best of the modern era.
He has been the world number one for a record 373 weeks and a win at the Australian Open will put him back on top, with Steffi Graf’s all-time record of 377 weeks in his sights.
Djokovic is the only player in tennis history to have held all four major titles on three different surfaces at once and the only player to win all four majors, all nine Masters 1000 tournaments and the ATP Tour Finals – and he’s won each twice.
He came closer than anyone since Rod Laver in 1969 to winning all four major titles in the same year before falling to Daniil Medvedev in the US Open final – a match in which, ironically, he finally enjoyed raucous support from the crowd despite losing.
Of course, Nadal currently holds the edge over both of his rivals in the one stat that rules all others, with his 22 major titles edging out Djokovic’s 21 and Federer’s 20.
One gets the sense that statistic is in danger, however, given the scarily imposing form Djokovic has displayed en route to the semi-finals at Melbourne Park, from which point he is yet to be defeated.
Less injury-prone, Djokovic has more time on his side than Nadal, who is one year his senior, and will enter the favourite at every major barring perhaps – for now at least – the French Open.
Also, a one-slam deficit will seem like child’s play for Djokovic, given that by the close of 2010 he trailed Nadal by eight and Federer by 15.
Given the sheer amount of work Djokovic puts into maintaining his body, there’s also a genuine possibility he could play on for at least another few years.
The fear he instils in rivals is arguably greater than it ever has been – his latest victim Andrey Rublev said after his fourth-round win he would prefer not to be facing Djokovic in the quarterfinals, while in the recently released tennis documentary several players speak in awe of both he and Nadal.
After starting his race to be the greatest at the Australian Open back in 2008, it could very well be at Melbourne Park 15 years later that much of the tennis world finally declares him the winner.
Perhaps the only player standing in Novak Djokovic’s way is… Novak.
