Novak Djokovic
This guy has tremendous spirit and heart. There probably wasn’t another player that was put through the physical marathons this year at Wimbledon. He beat Lleyton Hewitt in the 4th round in a tough four hour and 12 minute match. He then had to beat the powerful Marcos Baghdatis in what most commentators are calling an “epic” five hour and five minute match the very next day. Those two matches were the longest ones played over single days this year at Wimbledon.
The win over Baghdatis allowed him to go through to his second grand slam semi-final ever (first was at the French Open a few weeks ago) against the same opponent, Rafael Nadal. Even though the exhausted Djokovic took the first set, he was not expected to keep that up. In the middle of the third set, Djokovic decided to retire from the match due to his extreme exhaustion, back, hip and foot injuries that he had accumulated over the past few days. The bloodied and infected blister on his foot had kept him up all Friday night before his match against Nadal. It was sad, but completely understandable. He received a standing ovation and his parents appeared to be very proud of their 20 year-old son who has done so much.
Since he managed to reach the semi-finals while Andy Roddick did not, Novak Djokovic has now taken the number three seed in the ATP rankings from Roddick after coming into the tournament as the number four in the world after Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Andy Roddick.
He is certainly my current favorite young male tennis player. He also has a great sense of humor. Check out his impressions of Roddick, Hewitt, Sampras, Nadal and Sharpova. People say Roddick does the best impressions, but don’t think so. Novak is funnier. Also watch this amusing video of him before a match at the French Open this year.
The men’s final will be in a few hours. I hope Federer defeats Nadal to claim his place in the Wimbledon record book as the second player (Bjorn Borg was the first) to win five consecutive Wimbledon titles in in a row.
P.S. Did you guys see Margaret Thatcher in the Royal Box during the women’s final yesterday? Martina Navratilova and Pierce Brosnan were also there.
