Andy Roddick has once again been speaking about Novak Djokovic, following his recent semi-final exit from the Monte-Carlo Masters.
The 24-time Grand Slam champion, barring his early exit from Indian Wells, has gone deep in both of these prestigious tournaments before being felled by an in-form opponent.
It is hardly the crisis many are making it out to be, yet we are mid-way through April and he is still without a title.
This is not normal for us as tennis fans, but something we may well have to become accustomed to.
Andy Roddick saw Novak Djokovic do something ‘strange’ at Monte-Carlo
Speaking on his Served with Andy Roddick podcast, the former world number one was as complimentary as ever of the Serbian superstar, but did outline one oddity which caught his eye.
He noted: ‘I’m having a hard time getting a read on the Novak we say in Monte Carlo and the reasonings for it.
‘It was a good week for Novak. He got his paces in. You have to be a certain type of player for people to criticise a semi-final showing in the first clay court tournament of the year when you have only played two events all year and you beat a top ten player along the way.
‘No other player would get criticism for that, so we are going to leave that there.
‘It was a little strange that he was like, labouring. His breath looked like it was short, especially against [Alex] De Minaur. It was like he was still trying to find his match fitness, but that is not a criticism. This is normal.
‘I’m so scared of Nole’s [Djokovic’s] Twitter people. I am effusive about how brilliant he is. I think I was the first to say that he was the greatest before it was generally accepted, but you can’t win them all.
‘I thought it was a good week for Novak. Uncharacteristic at the end, but if you haven’t played a lot of matches, it’s unrealistic to think you will play at the peak of your abilities. He needs to play more tennis going into Roland Garros. He knows better than anyone how to manage this part of the year.
‘He has slowly ramped up the clay court season to get to a Roland Garros title, so I’m not worried about him.’
Novak Djokovic proves he is only human
At 36 years of age, and having truly won it all (aside from Olympic gold), Djokovic can certainly be excused from slowing down a bit.
After all, he has lived life at 100 miles an hour for the better part of two decades, having dominated world tennis throughout.
It was only natural that he was bound to experience some form of decline, and if that consists of two semi-finals from three tournaments played, it’s not really that bad.
In any sport, people love to overreact.
However, what we have experienced with Djokovic has not been normal. His superhuman feats of skill and longevity are unlike anything we have ever seen before.
But what we are experiencing now is normal. It’s just that we’ve become so accustomed to unrelenting greatness for so long.
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