Maybe the greatest of all

 On June 13^th, 2021 Novak Djokovitch beat Rafael Nadal in a marathon encounter at the semifinals at Roland Garros. Rafa, a 13 times winner of the French Open, was thought to have reigned supreme in Paris but Djoko re-wrote the script with a stunning display. I watched the entire game, (it had been a while since I did that with a tennis match) and when it ended, I told myself that I should make an effort to attend the US Open Final and watch history being made.

My decision was further validated by the Finals (Djoko beat Tsitsipas, despite being down 2 sets at the start). He proceeded to win Wimbledon in a similar fashion. The US Open tickets came on sale the day after Wimbledon and my friend Vivek, who is somewhat of a regular at Flushing Meadows, snagged a few of us some tickets. The die had been cast for me to watch my first Grand Slam game live, and it could not be under more exciting circumstances.

Social media was buzzing with the G.O.A.T. debate, from the puerile partisan bickering to more sober in-depth discussion. It was pointed out often that a Grand Slam HAS been achieved since 1969, and it was not just a Grand Slam but a Golden Grand Slam, but even that was back in 1988. In the middle of all this, Djoko, a crowd and participant favorite at the Tokyo Olympics, lost in the semi-finals to Zverev. He then proceeded to lose the bronze medal. Looking back, maybe those were early signs but excuses abounded – if only those were 5 setters.

On September 12, we were at Flushing Meadows bright and early. When we got to our seats and I looked around, it appeared that every Serb in the US was at the stadium. T-shirts, hoodies and caps with Novak slogans lurked in every corner. The game began at 4 PM sharp, and Djokovic promptly got broken in Set 1, Game 1. He went on to lose the set and we exchanged knowing glances – he is just warming up. Then he went on to the lose the second set, and grinning nervously, we told each other “Ah, he is going to replay the French Open script. All the more exciting”.

It was when Djokovic was 5-3 down in the third set, with Medvedev on serve, that it suddenly hit me that almost everyone in the Stadium – Serbs, non-Serbs alike wanted him to win. It had been previously unimaginable to see a crowd heart and soul behind him. The atmosphere became beyond electric, the do or die moment seemed to be not just for Novak but for all of us seated there. I have been watching tennis for almost forty years and I have never seen a Grand Slam crowd cheer a double fault, erupting as if the match was won. We wanted him to win, because we just wanted to believe that it can be done, we wanted to see a Grand Slam just like we would want to see a human set foot on Mars. After almost two years of the effing pandemic, we needed to know that we were still capable of astounding feats.

Alas, what we saw instead was the fragility of humans. 

I think it is without debate that Joker Nole is among the top hundred humans in terms of handling stress. In fact, I am being generous as he may even be in the top ten. That day, his superhuman power slowly dissolved in front of our eyes. It wasn’t that Medvedev played like a colossus, and neither did Djokovic crumble. Everything was off just by the smallest fraction – the sizzling ace was instead a fractional fault, the down the line forehand just tentative enough to miss being a winner. All Danil Medvedev had to do was stay in the game  and watch the human psyche eat itself, crumb by crumb.

The game was over in record time. I had made plans to party with friends and return home the next day but instead I dragged my despondent self through the Flushing Meadows parking lot looking for my car for 45 minutes. I then drove home battling the Mets crowd and was back by 11 PM. The only thing I could think of was a near-tears Djokovic saying: “I would like to say, that tonight, even though I have not won the match, my heart is filled with joy and I'm the happiest man alive because you guys made me feel very special on the court. I've never felt like this in New York”.

During my drive back, a friend texted to say "Sorry Joker lost, I didn't care but I was rooting for him".  That made me think – I wasn't rooting so much for him as I was for us ordinary humans and tonight Novak made us understand that he is one of us, which is why we ended up caring.