I can serve at 235 km/h, but Djokovic will always know where to put his racket

Sasha Zverev

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The tennis player who arrived late, and without an invitation, to the party is taking everything.

Novak Djokovic (36) appeared at Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal’s party (the tennis story had already been constructed: we belonged to Federer or Nadal), he pushed the DJ and got on the decks. He then served the glasses and drank them. He danced with everyone until he got tired and turned off the light when he left.

Well, actually he hasn’t turned off the light yet.

The party continues.

We’ll see how long: the augurs predict another good year for Djokovic, they predict another two or three Grand Slam titles for 2024.

(In 2023 he has won three).

(…)

If Djokovic, only a year younger than Nadal, had arrived late to the Manacorí party and Federer it is because, by then, he was carrying an insurmountable weight.

Nole was celiac and didn’t know it.

He didn’t know it until 2010.

By then, for those first months of 2010, Federer already had 15 grand. Nadal, seven. And Djokovic, just one, the 2008 Australian Open.

The problem, food intolerance, weighed down the Serb, compromising him in those games that lasted too long. Djokovic ended up dejected, with his muscles blocked. Sometimes, he didn’t even finish the match: he was forced to retire.

In January 2010, Dr. Igor Cetojevic, a nutritionist, watched on television as Djokovic was breaking down in the quarterfinals of the Australian Open. Arriving at the fifth set of his duel against Jo-Wilfred Tsonga, Nole collapsed. He lost the fourth set 6-3 and did not raise his head in the last. He surrendered it 6-1.

By then, his physical decompositions were abundant in analysts’ conversations. Some interpreted that Djokovic suffered from asthma. Dr. Cetojevic understood that the problem was in diet. He sent a letter to Djokovic and the Serbian responded. They agreed to meet.

Weeks later, Djokovic was lying on Cetojevic’s stretcher. From that meeting came the diagnosis and treatment.

Out with the wheat.

Djokovic wrote about it all in his book: Serve to win, a guide to his eating habits, training system and motivational exercises.

In 2011, Djokovic took flight. He won three Grand Slam titles and burst into Federer and Nadal’s party. He played music and danced until he was fed up, and there he is still, at the after party, surprising the general public with his 24 greats, as many as Margaret Court, contemplating the rest of the world from his vantage point, Nadal and Federer included, and challenging those who come behind, the surpassed Medvedev, Tsitsipas, Rublev and Zverev and the puppies Alcaraz, Sinner and Rune.