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Friday, March 29 2024
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Tennis

Novak Djokovic Wins Seventh ATP Award

Brian Novak Atp 31221
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With the end of the calendar year soon approaching, it is time to hand out the personal accolades and with Novak Djokovic having a storming 2021, it comes as no surprise that he has picked up another award.

One that he is rather familiar with and with him recently being crowned as the ATP Player Of The Year for a seventh time, it is also the third occasion that the Serbian has won the award in the last four years.

Such has been the dominance of the 34-year-old across the past 12 months, that many would have had positioned him as favourite to win the 2022 edition of the Australian Open. That is until a certain vaccine got in the way.
With Djokovic well known to be someone considered as anti-vax, it has made his participation in the upcoming Australian Open all but impossible and although there is still time for the ace to receive the relevant jabs, a change of mindset is also rather unlikely.

This means the tournament is going to lose a rather high-profile entry at the start of next year and for those who are looking on placing a wager on proceedings in Melbourne, they will have to think again in terms of their favourites.
Something that means the likes of Fanduel New York will now have to reassess their outright market for the Men’s tournament and if it is not to be Djokovic who wins honours in Australia, the question is who will.

A question that may provide an answer from this year’s runner up and with Dannii Medvedev making it all the way to the final, the Russian star will now look to go one better without his courtside getting involved.

Of course, what happens at the start of 2022, has little bearing on what has happened across 2021 and although this year’s Player Of The Year did not compete at the Tokyo Olympics during the summer, global dominance was certainly the order of the day.

Because after winning the first Grand Slam of 2021 – that being the aforementioned Australian Open final against Medvedev, the French Open at Roland Garros would soon be added to the ever-growing list of top tier success.

Two different surfaces in hard court and clay but ultimately the same eventual outcome and although Djokovic is not necessarily known for his prowess on the latter, he showed no signs of weakness when defeating Stefanos Tsitsipas in the final.

Two Grand Slams out of two in the bag and the next task was to conquer the world-famous tournament in South West London and one that is synonymous with the discipline of Grass-surface tennis. That of course, being the legendary Wimbledon.

No matter what the surface, there was one constant theme. That was another Grand Slam in 2021 being earned by the man in question and after getting the better of Matteo Berrettini on Centre Court, the clean sweep for this year was very much on.

Not many stars have won all four Grand Slam tournaments in a calendar year and although that was very much the aim for a player who has won at Flushing Meadows on two separate occasions, he was to be deprived of someone who managed to exact some personal revenge.

Because not only did Dannii Medvedev stop Djokovic from winning a third US Open title, but he also put a halt to the Grand Slam juggernaut and perhaps in this very performance, it showed that even sporting legends are also human.
Although it would have been an incredible feat to scoop up everything from the Australian to the US Open and everything in between, there was a sense that Djokovic’s tank was running on fumes by the time Medvedev came out on top.

A massive disappointment without doubt, but not one that should overlook what an incredible year it has been for one of tennis’ all-time greats and with no appearance in the 2022 Australian Open looking likely, the sport has been deprived of one of its more incredible sights.

Quite simply, when Novak Djokovic is in full flight, there are not many players who can strike a tennis ball as gracefully as he and with all the honours he earned in 2021, his accolade of Player Of The Year is incredibly apt.

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