When will Djokovic fans finally figure things out?

Question

Yesterday when Marat Safin beat Novak 6–4, 7–6(3), 6–2 he played his best tennis and Novak played well but was taken by surprise and it will probably never happen again. It was similar to what Novak did to Roger in Montreal last year beating him 7–5, 6–3, 7–6(5) in the Final. Novak played his best tennis and Roger played well. This will never happen again.

At the AO semi while Fed was still ill with Mono he lost to Novak 7–5, 6–3, 7–6(5) an ill Fed and a completely healthy and pumped up Novak yet the match was still so close.

Then luckily for Novak, Tsonga had a Marat Safin like match against Rafa in the other semi 6–2, 6–3, 6–2 where Tsonga played his best match ever and Rafa played well but he took Rafa by surprise. Novak then went on to beat Tsonga 4–6, 6–4, 6–3, 7–6(2) in the Final. Tsonga was in his first Grand Slam Final of his life and feeling the pressure played worse than against Rafa. So Novak wins his one and only Grand Slam due mainly to Fed being ill. Rafa would have

Answer 1

Hey James, good to see you! 9 out of 10 times, you and I are spot on in our opinions. This will be that 1. LOL!

You draw some great conclusions about Novak's results at the AO and against Roger but I still think from a talent standpoint, Novak is a legit top 5. Other than Roger, I don't buy that any other seed is set in stone. Depending on Rafa's Wimbledon results, I would concede him the legit #2 but he still has yet to prove his hard court prowess and that makes up 50% of the Slams. IMO, Novak is a better hard court player than Rafa which is tough for me to admit because Rafa is one of my top 5 favs if not my #2 fav.

Novak is a great talent with a fantastic shot selection but he is less mature than the other players at this point. This is a point I think we agree on. It didn't help him that he ascended as quickly as he did so his immaturity is exacerbated by an ego slightly out of sync.

Put simply, he has all the tools to be a legit top 5 and even a top 3 but his maturity level has to catch up to that talent before I'll buy into him maintaining that ranking.

Hope you're doing well!