TENNIS in DEPTH.

For many it is no longer a question of if, but when will Djokovic become World No. 1.

Novak Djokovic might not have added another Grand Slam championship to his 2008 Australian Open title as he had hoped in 2009, but former and current members of the Serbian’s coaching team believe he has taken a step closer to becoming the next player to rank No. 1 in the South African Airways ATP Rankings.

This year Djokovic has been happy to sit back while Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Andy Murray and Juan Martin del Potro have taken the greater share of the plaudits, but somewhere between January and November he has quietly managed to win an ATP World Tour-best 76 matches. Still for all that, the tennis world has had more questions than answers. Had Djokovic become too comfortable? Had he peaked? Even the player himself admitted, in September, that he “expected something greater” this year. It was not until back-to-back ATP World Tour titles at the Davidoff Swiss Indoors in Basel and at the BNP Paribas Masters in Paris that his grand plan began to bear fruit.

What people outside the Djokovic camp may not have realised when they began to write him off this year was that Novak had been forming a plan in his assault on the summit of professional tennis. In order to improve his fitness and flexibility he hired Gebhard Phil-Gritsch, former strength and conditioning coach of Thomas Muster. Djokovic and Phil-Gritsch went straight to work. Soon Novak’s body began to take shape; chest and biceps were carved firm while the shoulders broadened and abs sprung tight.

Still, Novak was not satisfied with his performance and while long-time coach Marian Vadja would continue by his side, Novak felt that he needed extra insight with tactical coaching and asked Martin to join his team.

“I was thinking about working with somebody that can help me out with my serve and my volley game,” Djokovic says.

“The circumstances were that he has been in a relationship with Marin [Vajda] for several years and was interested in having some additional feedback,” says Martin, who will continue with ‘Team Djokovic’ in 2010.

Determined to attack the net with greater success, Novak worked persistently on the transition from the baseline.

“Compartmentally, his skills are very good,” continues Martin. “His volleys are technically sound, but there is a lot of feel that is garnered in recognising opportunities to move forward.”

It is that very feel that Martin mentions, a certain spontaneity, that one would think comes natural to Djokovic. Or does it? Federer has often been portrayed as an artist and Nadal as a raging bull, but how would you describe Djokovic? For all the stand-up comedy and improv, lies a keen observer and very methodical young man with a scientific mind for tennis. Study Djokovic’s shot selection and you will notice that it is consistently high percentage. And when he whips a backhand passing shot cross-court and dips it inside the service line you get the feeling that he has measured out an acute angle with all the precision of a mathematician.

“To reach that goal [World No. 1], I’m going to have to be very successful at the major tournaments,” Djokovic states. “Throughout the whole of 2009, I’ve been playing quite consistent, and especially on the lower category tournaments where I was winning a lot and playing a lot of finals in [ATP World Tour] Masters 1000 events. But I haven’t done a great job at the Grand Slams, which wasn’t the case in the last two years. So I just hope I’ll make that better in 2010, because that’s what makes difference, obviously, between the top players rankings wise.”

Martin confirms, “I think that deep down inside he [Djokovic] realises that he has talent to do more than he has done, although he has done an awful lot.”

“He [Djokovic] is definitely not satisfied to be number three or four,” states Pilic. “He wants to be number one. His dream was always to be the best.”

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• Djokovic snags Fish and will now meet Monfils.
• Djokovic’s next match with Fish will be his toughest to date.
• Federer, Djokovic and Soderling roll on in NY.

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