Sad to see Djokovic losing most of the longer baseline points against both Thiem and Medvedev when he used to be a dominant machine from the baseline till recently. Thiem won three long baseline points in a row when down 0-4 in the 3rd set tiebreaker and took Novak’s belief away that he deserved to win the match. It was only Djokovic’s good serving that was keeping him level in the match until then as Thiem clearly looked like the better baseline player.
What happened to the Novak Djokovic who was the best player on hard courts with only Federer capable of looking better than him on fast hardcourts? He is playing defensively from the baseline and hoping for his opponent to make errors while not attacking the ball on the rise and hitting close to the sidelines like he used to do. He looks like a pale version of the 2012-2014 Djokovic who would play well enough to get to Slam finals and then lose most of them to Nadal, Murray and Wawrinka.
At this ATP Finals, the problem was not any mental issues, but the fact that his baseline play was too conservative and not as consistent as Medvedev and Thiem. Not a good way to end the season as it will be hard for him to feel very confident next season if he faces them in big matches. Nadal also looked better than him even on this fast, low bouncing court throughout the week, Outside of Wimbledon where he might be able to servebot, I don’t see this version of Novak winning Slams in 2021 - Becker to the rescue? Keep Pepe away!
