Tennis

Never understand the hate for Djokovic. Amazing belief, talent and will to win. Always found him to be pretty sporting when i’ve watched him. Can only think it’s because he dethroned the 2 peoples champions or because he had his own view on taking a new jab.
 
Craig said:
Never understand the hate for Djokovic. Amazing belief, talent and will to win. Always found him to be pretty sporting when i’ve watched him. Can only think it’s because he dethroned the 2 peoples champions or because he had his own view on taking a new jab.
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Think one of the biggest points is like you say most people were either Nadal or Federer fans, then he came along too late and fans stuck with their favourite with not many making the switch to supporting him - especially as when you look at how he acted when he first started, he was impressively unlikeable.

He's manufactured himself to try and be more likeable but it has never really worked as I think most people can see that it's a show and people love genuineness. For what it's worth if you read what other players say about him it seems he genuinely is a nice bloke off the court.

The other big factor is his style of play is pretty dull. He's an absolute wall with remarkable movement - but that's not going to get people off their feet often unlike Federer/Nadal/Alcaraz/Sinner can do (or did).
 
Craig said:
Never understand the hate for Djokovic. Amazing belief, talent and will to win. Always found him to be pretty sporting when i’ve watched him. Can only think it’s because he dethroned the 2 peoples champions or because he had his own view on taking a new jab.
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Amazing player, and whilst he does seemed to have become more humble and magnanimous (since the whole Covid/Australia deportation thing?) he was too much of bad sport in his early days for me to warm to him.

Whenever a player got within a sniff of beating him he'd feign injury, get the trainer on or leave the court, thereby disrupting the flow of the game.

And he's so f**kin' smug.

I love watching Alcaraz and Sinner play - you could see early on that they were both going to be great players, so it's as much about the joy of seeing Sinner continue to rise up the rankings as seeing Smugovic lose.
 
Craig said:
Never understand the hate for Djokovic. Amazing belief, talent and will to win. Always found him to be pretty sporting when i’ve watched him. Can only think it’s because he dethroned the 2 peoples champions or because he had his own view on taking a new jab.
Click to expand...

He is real with his emotions, occasionally getting very passionate on the court and angry, even. In contrast, Federer mostly played with a poker face. He was a media darling. I like it when people show their emotions, which is why I always liked Nadal and not so much Federer. Judging Djokovic, I go by what other players say, people who know him. I met him for about 5 minutes (Miami 2016), so it doesn't really count, but other players all say he is incredible off the court and has been a role model for many of them. Even in this AO alone, we have heard how he told Sinner back in 2021 what to work on to beat him, took Medvedev on his private jet back when he was broke/not famous, funded several players over the years, and has been an active voice in favour of the financial support for the lower ranked players. He has invested millions into the poor community he derives from. He is highly respected among fellow world-class athletes in other disciplines as well. For example, he used to be close friends with Kobe Bryant. Even with his controversial take on vax, he could have easily funded himself a fake certificate, but he didn't. He made it public knowledge that he is not vaccinated, was happy to miss a few grand slams and several tournaments, and otherwise supported/funded vaccine stations back in Serbia. He got kicked out of Australia on the anti-terrorist law, so I don't think he knew he was not allowed to get in with whatever he had. I think he said he was ill-advised by someone from his team. Later on, he was happy to miss tournaments. He got a lot of hate before any of that, anyway. There is a deeply routed xenophobia in Western Society against people from Eastern Europe. Medvedev talked about it extensively years ago. I have personally experienced it myself a lot over the years despite living most of my life outside of Eastern Europe. I suspect most people "hating him" are from the Anglosphere and don't even watch tennis outside of Wimbledon or an occasional other grand slam. He gets a lot of love in Asia and in most of Europe (outside of the West). Also, he is the most followed player on social media. Anyway, I have a lot of respect for Djokovic. The guy grew up during the war and had a very underprivileged background. He has an incredible underdog story. It sucks he had to beat Nadal so many times, especially in the last 10 years or so, though. I will never forget AO 2014 or Wimbledon 2018. Nadal should have won both of these, IMO. Rafa got Novak in FO 2013, though. I thought he was lucky there.

Anyway, incredible from Janik Sinner today. So many players play the name and not the player, but Sinner has shown some exceptional mental strength today by blowing Djokovic off the court, in Australia, of all places. Jannik is really growing on me with his incredible attitude. I hope he wins it all. He has all the weapons to do it.
 
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What did I just witness!? What a comeback from Daniil. It reminds me of the 2018 Wimbledon QF Federer-Anderson, and the way Anderson came back from 2-0 down as well having almost lost in 3. Well played to Meddy, incredible mental strength. He is truly one of the most intelligent players on the tour. I like his honesty in the post-match interviews as well. He always delivers. As for Zverev, this was like the 2020 US Open final for him, ouch. He needs to work on his mental strength because he's got the game for sure. I will never forget that match against Rafa at the French when he got injured. He looked incredible that day.
 
In earlier times Djokovic used to impersonate other players, Nadal and Sharapova in particular. He was told by the authorities to cut it out. Spoil sports.
 
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