The Career Of Novak Djokovic (Part Three)

We continue our look at the career of Novak Djokovic today.

2013: Sixth Grand Slam title and 100 weeks at No. 1

  

Djokovic began the 2013 season by defeating Murray in the final of the 2013 Australian Open to win a record third consecutive Australian Open trophy and the sixth Grand Slam of his career. A week later, he participated in a Davis Cup match against Belgium, where he defeated Olivier Rochus in straight sets to give the Serbian team a 2–0 lead.

On 2 March 2013, Djokovic won the thirty-sixth professional single's title of his career by defeating Tomáš Berdych in the final of the Dubai Tennis Championships. Another solid week of tennis saw Djokovic reach the semi-finals at the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, before losing to del Potro, bringing an end to his twenty-two match winning streak. The following week, Djokovic went into the Miami Masters as defending champion, but lost in the fourth round to Tommy Haas in straight sets.

In April, Djokovic played for Serbia as the country faced the United States in the Davis Cup quarter-finals. Djokovic clinched the tie for his team by defeating John Isner and Sam Querrey. Later that month, he defeated eight-time champion Nadal in straight sets in the final of the Monte-Carlo Rolex Masters to clinch his first title in Monte Carlo. In May, he was defeated by Grigor Dimitrov in three sets in the second round of the Mutua Madrid Open in Madrid. The following week, he lost to Berdych at the quarter-final stage of the Rome Masters.

Djokovic began his French Open campaign with a straight three sets win over David Goffin in the first round and also defeated Guido Pella in straight sets in the second round. In the third round, Djokovic defeated Dimitrov in three sets. In the fourth round he came back from a set down and defeated Philipp Kohlschreiber of Germany in four sets and in the process he had reached a 16th consecutive Grand Slam quarter-final. Djokovic then lost to Nadal in the semi-final in five sets.

In the finals of the 2013 Wimbledon Championships, Djokovic lost to Murray in straight sets. At the Rogers Cup, he lost to Nadal in the semi-final in three sets. Later, Djokovic lost to Isner in the quarter-finals in Cincinnati. Djokovic went on to reach the US Open final, where he met Nadal for the 37th time in his career . He went on to lose in four sets. In early October, Djokovic collected his fourth Beijing title by defeating Nadal in the final in straight sets. He also collected his second Shanghai Rolex Masters title, extending his winning streak to 20–0 over the last 2 seasons at the hard court Asian swing of the tour. Djokovic won his 16 Masters 1000 title in Paris at the end of the season, beating David Ferrer in the final. At the 2013 ATP World Tour Finals Djokovic retained the trophy, beating Nadal in straight sets.

2014: Second Wimbledon title, four masters & return to No. 1

  

Djokovic began the year with a warmup tournament win, the 2013 Mubadala World Tennis Championship. At the Australian Open, he won his first four matches in straight sets, against Lukáš Lacko, Leonardo Mayer, Denis Istomin and number 15 seed Fabio Fognini respectively. He met Wawrinka in the quarterfinals of the tournament, the second consecutive year the two had met at the event. Despite coming back from two sets to one down, Djokovic fell 9–7 in the fifth set, ending his 25–match winning streak in Melbourne, as well as his streak of 14 consecutive Grand Slam semifinals. The week of 27 January marked the first time since 2011 that Djokovic has not been a Grand Slam title holder.

Djokovic also would play in the Dubai Tennis Championships but lost to eventual champion Roger Federer in the semifinals. However, Djokovic would avenge his loss to Federer, winning his third Indian Wells Masters title, beating Federer in the final. Continuing his good run, he beat world No. 1 Nadal in the final of the Miami Masters in straight sets. Suffering from a wrist injury which hampered him throughout the Monte-Carlo Masters, Djokovic lost the semifinals to Federer in straight sets. After returning from injury, Djokovic won his third Rome title by beating Nadal in the final of the Italian Open. He subsequently donated the $500,000 in prize money that he had received to the victims of the 2014 Southeast Europe floods.

Djokovic reached the final of the French Open losing only two sets in six matches, but lost in the final to Nadal in four sets. It was Djokovic's first defeat in the last 5 matches between both. At the Wimbledon Championships Djokovic defeated Roger Federer in the final in five sets. With this victory he replaced Rafael Nadal again as the world number one. Djokovic played at the Rogers Cup, losing to eventual first-time champion Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in straight sets. He followed that with a loss to Tommy Robredo at the Cincinnati Masters. At the US Open, Djokovic reached the semifinals, where he lost in four sets to Kei Nishikori.

Djokovic returned to Beijing with a fifth trophy in 6 years, defeating Murray in the semifinal and Berdych in the final. He was beaten by Federer in semis of Shanghai Masters next week. He then won Paris Bercy masters title, without losing a single set, beating Raonic in the final.

In the world tour finals, Djokovic created a record by winning three round robin matches with a loss of just 9 games. By reaching the semis, he also secured the year-end number 1 ranking for the third time, tying him with Nadal at fifth position. He was awarded the World Tour Finals trophy after Federer withdrew before the finals. This marked the 7th title of the season for him and the 4th title at the World Tour Finals.

2015: Three Majors, six masters, 11 titles & ranking points record

  

Djokovic began the season at the Qatar Open in Doha, where he won his first two rounds for the loss of just 6 games, however lost in the quarterfinals against Ivo Karlović in three tight sets. He rebounded from this defeat well at the Australian Open, where he made it through the first five rounds without dropping a set. In the semifinals he faced defending champion Stan Wawrinka, the man who beat him the previous year. He twice lost a set lead, however came roaring back in the fifth to take it to love, and set up a third final against Andy Murray. After splitting the first two sets in tiebreakers, Djokovic suddenly found his form after dropping his serve at the start of the third set, going on to win 12 of the last 13 games to record a four set victory over the Scot, and win an Open Era record-breaking fifth title in Melbourne, overtaking Roger Federer and Andre Agassi.   

   

Additionally he moved into equal eighth on the all-time list of men with the most Major titles, tying Agassi, Ivan Lendl, Jimmy Connors, Ken Rosewall and Fred Perry.

He next competed at the Dubai Tennis Championships and lost to Roger Federer in the final. After 2 weeks, Djokovic defeated John Isner and Andy Murray en route to his 21st Masters 1000 title, beating Federer in three sets in Indian Wells. In Miami, he defeated David Ferrer and John Isner en route to winning his fifth title defeating Andy Murray in three sets. With his 22nd Masters title, Djokovic became the first player to complete the Indian Wells – Miami title sweep three times. In April, Djokovic clinched his second Monte-Carlo Masters by beating Tomas Berdych in the final. Djokovic withdrew from the 2015 Madrid Masters. He won the title for the fourth time at the Rome Masters, making it 4 out of 4 titles in Masters 1000 events entered by Djokovic in 2015.

He continued his good form on clay at the French Open, by reaching the final without dropping a set in the first five rounds, including a quarterfinal clash with Nadal and a five set semifinal victory over No. 3 seed Andy Murray which took two days to complete. This meant he became only the second man to have won against Nadal at the French Open. However, he lost the next match and the tournament to No. 8 seed Stan Wawrinka in four sets, after having prevailed in the first set and being up a break in the fourth set and up 40–0 on Wawrinka's serve in a subsequent game. He lost six of the final seven games of the match. With this loss, Djokovic was denied his first victory at the French Open and a personal career Grand Slam. Five weeks later, he rebounded again from a tough loss in Paris, just like 2014, coming from two sets down to beat Kevin Anderson in the fourth round, and then going on to claim his third Wimbledon title in his fourth final at the All England Club, with a four set win over Roger Federer.

Prior to the final Grand Slam event of the year, Djokovic had the chance to become the first man in history to complete the full set of Masters 1000 titles in Cincinnati, and reached the final for the fifth time, however he was once again beaten by Federer, making it a fifth straight defeat in a Cincinnati final. At the 2015 US Open, Djokovic reached the final for the sixth time in his career, achieving the feat of reaching all four grand slam finals in a single calendar year. In the final of the tournament, he faced Federer once again, defeating him in four sets to win his third grand slam title of the year, his second title at Flushing Meadows, and his tenth career grand slam singles title, becoming the fifth man in the Open Era to win ten or more Grand Slam singles titles, as well as only the third man to reach all four Major finals in a calendar year.

He returned to Beijing in October, winning the title for the sixth time, defeating Nadal in straight sets in the final to bring his overall record at the tournament to 29-0. Djokovic then reached the final of the Paris Masters, where he defeated Murray in straight sets, taking his fourth title there and a record sixth ATP Masters 1000 tournament in one year. After losing to Federer in the round-robin stage of the 2015 ATP World Tour Finals he took on the third seed again in the final. He beat Federer in straight sets winning his fifth World Tour Finals title and he became the first player to win four consecutive end-of-year finals tournaments.

Part Four Coming Tomorrow...

Tipster Street.