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Ruud says it’s not easy to be relaxed. There are only four Sundays on which major finals are played, one of them is today, and being involves is far from a given. He’s excited, as you would be.
Email! “I’m back!” begins James Wilson. “Novak in three, max four sets (with Ruud maybe snagging the third 7-6 or 6-4). I am a Federer fan but I think the numbers don’t lie around Djokovic – greatest male tennis player by miles and it isn’t even close. Sure, he doesn’t pass the eye test (it’s why I prefer watching the ethereal Federer play) but if you wanted a man to play for your life, and you could choose just one tennis player, one, who would stay there three hours orv three days but get the job done – you would only pick one player – Novak (Fed would shank too many backhands and Nadal is too injury-prone). The chat around Novak being too mechanical is understandable but it mostly belongs to casual fans (which is the majority, let’s face it) who don’t really understand just how remarkable it is what he is doing. To outlast, physically, a man 16 years his junior on the clay and in the heat – this is testament to the intensity of the man, his supreme fitness and conditioning and simply knowing his body, and playing well within himself, never mind stumbling over the five rounds up to the semis, where he simply goes up several gears and Carlos simply could not keep up, once this happened. He is not used to being challenged. To every single point he plays having such intensity, so much running, so many angles, for his serve, a massively improved stroke the last year or so, or how he returns, with insane precision, every single time. There are no easy points facing Djokovic in a best-of-five format – he gives you nothing. He can also raise his level at any point he wants to – Carlos was playing as well as he possibly can for two sets but the price his body paid for it was visible at 1-1 in the third set. Novak? You always felt that he could be out there another three hours, no problem, playing with a level as high, if not higher, if and when he needed to.
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