Djokovic, Murray's shock exits at Australian Open show 30 is not the new 20
It is either the highest seeded players in the 2017 Australian Open are jinxed, or the Rod Laver Arena, all of a sudden, is revealing itself as the Golgotha for those poor souls.
On Thursday, January 19, the reigning champion, Novak Djokovic, who was until halfway through the last season considered invincible, bit the dust as early as the second round at the hands of a wild card entrant and 117th ranked Denis Istomin in a five set-four hour-48 minute gruelling match, leaving a host of other young players in strong contention.
Just two days later, on Sunday, an unseeded German, Mischal Zverev pulled off a monumental fourth round upset, shattering the title hope of number one seed Andy Murray. It would certainly break anybody’s heart who had contested five finals during the previous years, winding up every time at the loser’s end.
The left-handed Zverev pulled out of his backpack incredible serve and volley skills reminding old timers of John McEnroe in his prime. He kept Murray, the best defender, save Djokovic, in the tour under relentless pressure attacking the net 118 times, and not letting him get into the groove of his base line game and denying him his rhythm. It made Murray look like a lost child in a kindergarten playground, drawn into a scrupulously engineered cobweb of measured volleys of all kinds that was articulated by brilliant net play.
During the on-court interview when Jim Courier asked him how he felt after hitting a crucial overhead into the net in the final set, Zverev said he sneaked a peek at his mother in the player’s box, and she smiled reassuringly. He was already in a coma, and that was all it took for him to do what he did before the Melbourne crowd who kept cheering the underdog.
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| Novak Djokovic (right) bowed out of the Australian Open after a shock defeat by wild card entrant and 117th ranked Denis Istomin. |
Though Murray conceded that his opponent deserved to win, he was unable to stomach how he was played. How many sleepless nights he is going to twist and turn in his bed haunted by the ghosts that frequented the Rod Laver Arena on that fateful Sunday morning, even Murray wouldn’t have the slightest idea.
The same afternoon also witnessed the shock exit of women’s top seed and defending champion Angelique Kerber at the hands of world number 35 Coco Vandeweghe. It appeared as if Kerber had completely lost focus. There were times when the German did not even tilt her head to glance at the ball that just passed her.
Although, a Tommy Haas or a Lleyton Hewitt is able to cause some stir occasionally in slam events, the new age algorithm of "30 is the new 20" doesn’t hold water any more in the men’s tour. Incidentally, both Murray and Djokovic would have turned 30 in four months when gates open at Rolland Garros.
From the start of 2011 through until last year's French Open, Djokovic won 11 Grand Slam titles and appeared in all but five of the 22 finals staged. That is astounding when compared to Roger Federer’s efforts, who won 16 of his 17 Grand Slams in a six and a half year period. Both Stan Wawrinka and Andre Agassi have won Grand Slams twice in their 30s. It may be worth mentioning that the 35-year-old Federer has added only one since he turned 29.
The Swedish old-timer Mats Wilander had won seven Grand Slams in his time, but when he won his last, he was only 24. Here is what Wilander has to say: "Like hair days, you have good days and bad days in tennis, especially when you get older. You don't have to call on anything when you are younger, it's just there naturally. You don't worry about the consequences, you just play and you fight until the bitter end. I think the mind gets in your way when you get older."
Curiously enough, the game of tennis is a solitary quest. Once a player allows himself the luxury of relishing within the boundaries of the tramlines, he like a boxer in the ring becomes a lone wolf all by himself.
"Deep down, he is a super-sensitive human being full of fears and insecurities that people who don’t know him would scarcely imagine," says Rafael Nadal’s mother, Ana Maria Parera. That’s exactly the reason why time and again Nadal had cast that washed up glance at his uncle Tony in the player’s box when his feared topspin forehand attritions were neutralised more by the rain soaked brick dust rather than Novak Jokovic in Roland Garros.
Historical sporting facts constantly have highlighted that sprinters peak in their 20s. When Usain Bolt set the 100 meter world record of 9.58 seconds in 2009 in Berlin, he was hardly 23. Since then he has not been able to run as fast. Physiology experts say that depletion of muscle mass and the drop in neuromuscular function are attributable to collateral damages of ageing explaining why sprinters are not able to sustain the length as well as frequency in their strides, as they age.
When the ball is in play and one is down under and nervous, one always tries to do too much or sometimes too little and never the right thing. The whole world was watching when Murray could only run up to Zverev’s drop volley a fraction of a second late, so much so that he did not have the chance to regain his equilibrium to flip the ball at the right angle across the net.
During the last couple of days in Melbourne park this pattern of evolution of the human physiology was more explicit than ever before. Yet this is also where, if one can address experience as mind reading, or even better, anticipation, counts.
It might require a lot of hard work and players’ study to employ such dexterity, but who knows players of the calibre of Murray, Djokovic and even Nadal may be able to achieve the impossible.