‘He middles every ball’

Somdev Devvarman.

In March 2013, on a windy stadium court at the Miami Open, India’s Somdev Devvarman clobbered a forehand down the line winner. The crowd roared.

“Best shot of the match,” the commentator said on TV.

It was too little too late. Devvarman, still recovering from a shoulder surgery and two back-to-back long matches, lost the encounter in straight sets 6-2 6-4.

Devvarman admits it would have made no difference had he been fully fit or rested. His opponent was Novak Djokovic. He was world no.1 then. Currently he is, uh, world no. 1.

“I was at a delicate point in my career. But the truth is it wouldn’t have mattered. Regardless of how tired I was, how fresh I was. Novak was playing a completely different level,” Devvarman, a dogged baseliner who reached world No. 62 in singles and won gold at the Commonwealth and Asian Games, tells Moneycontrol over phone from Chennai.

Devvarman was ranked 200-something and was past his 2011-peak when he met Djokovic. Djokovic had bossed the 2011 season and was a winner of several majors already. But Devvarman, a former NCAA champion, thought Djokovic’s serve was maybe not as potent as the other parts of his game.

Wrong. Devvarman had only one breakpoint in the match.

“His serve was a lot better than I had expected,” Devvarman said, echoing the words of Jack Draper, Djokovic’s first round opponent at this year’s Wimbledon, where he collected his 20^th major on Sunday. “Going into the match, we [Devvarman and his coach] talked a lot about his return game, how good he was from the corners, how well he counterpunched. But one of those things that really stood out to me when I was on the other side of the net was how effectively he served.”

Devvarman also experienced Djokovic’s frustrating ability to stretch like pizza dough – his parents ran a pizzeria - and get back balls from all parts of the court.

“There are plenty of times when he looks like he is not gonna get there [to the ball], or get there but give you something you can attack,” he said. “But from the corners, from out of position, he’d find a way to stay on balance and find a way to hurt you, not just put the ball back in. That ability of his is the best I have seen from any player to ever play the game.”

Djokovic has been more scientific and diligent about his regimen than his rivals, Devvarman believes. He is also a hard worker. This approach is why he is able to consistently maintain, Glenn McGrath style, a nagging, deep length on his shots.

“Obviously it’s practice,” Devvarman says. “He’s worked on his game religiously since he was a little kid. He’s also one of those guys who works on areas of his life and his health perhaps a bit more scientifically and diligently than some of his peers. I think the guy does everything he can do to get that little bit of an extra edge. And it shows.

Djokovic has been more scientific and diligent about his regimen than his rivals, Devvarman believes

Physical flexibility, as mentioned above, and an ability to consistently middle the ball are other aspects of Djokovic’s game that Devvarman finds special.

“I don’t think I have ever heard of flexibility being described as an athlete’s strength.  And you see why they say it. When he is off balance he has that ability to get the ball back a little bit further, a little bit deeper and from that crazy stretched position he finds a way to get back into position,” Devvarman says.

Devvarman says Djokovic’s timing is his “most incredible gift.”

“Novak always finds a way to middle the ball, which is his most incredible gift,” says Devvarman. “I remember one time he was playing Nicolas Almagro in the Australian Open. They were a set and a half, almost an hour into the match. Almagro hit a first serve and Novak shanked it wide, and the commentator goes, ‘That’s the first time Novak Djokovic has not hit the ball with the middle of the strings’.”

Djokovic, Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal. Devvarman has played against all three, each of whom now has 20 Grand Slam titles. He found it hardest to get into a groove against Federer, but says ultimately all of them were equally difficult to face.

“A lot of it [comfort level playing against an opponent] is match-up based,” Devvarman said. “For me it was always really hard to feel comfortable on a court against Roger. The other guys [Nadal and Djokovic] allowed me to play a little more. They would attack a little less and allow you to feel comfortable, but they’d still have the same result.

“Just that when you are playing Novak, and if it’s a tight point, you have a feeling he’s not going to miss, and if you feed him a short ball he’s going to make you pay. All of these guys have the ability to do that, they just do it in different ways.”

Asked what players needed to do to defeat Djokovic in a best of five sets format, Devvarman said, “Guys have come close. (Dominic) Thiem at the Australian Open last year, (Stefanos) Tsitsipas at the French Open this year. (Matteo) Berrettini won the first set [in the Wimbledon final]. It’s about keeping up that same level of intensity, focus, belief and execution over a long period of time. That’s where Novak makes them pay. If they lose concentration even for five minutes, or even a few seconds, they could go a break down. Novak keeps knocking on the door and asks really, really tough questions, and often times, he’s the only one with the answer.”