The mental strength of Novak Djokovic seems to be on the waneYann Caradec

As the 2016 tennis season comes to an end, the world number one, Novak Djokovic, seems to be falling apart. 

By the time Wimbledon came around in June, Djokovic had already won six ATP titles, including two Grand Slam tournaments. He had won the French Open for the first time to secure a career Grand Slam, and become one of the few players (the first in 47 years) to hold all Grand Slam titles at the same time. 

Since then, though, the player people had been calling unbeatable – the player who seemed inevitably on the way to beating Roger Federer’s record of 17 Grand Slam titles – seems to have fallen off a cliff. Most recently, Djokovic was defeated yet again in the semi-finals of the Shanghai Masters on the Saturday before last – leaving the Serbian with only two more chances for another title this year.

But it is not just these examples, and the fact that he failed to regain his Wimbledon and US Open titles. Instead, it is the manner of the defeats, and how early they have come in tournaments, that have raised eyebrows over the past three months.

First up, there was Sam Querrey in the third round at Wimbledon. Querrey was facing a man on a 31-match Grand Slam winning run, a man who was the red-hot favourite to regain his Wimbledon title. But after winning a gruelling first set tiebreaker, Querrey eased through the second set 6-1. 

Rain intervened, and the match was postponed to the next day, with the world number 41 two sets to love up. As expected, Djokovic fought back and when he claimed the third set it looked like one of his trademark comebacks was on the way again. However, in perhaps the biggest shock of the year, Querrey won the fourth set to claim what may well be the best victory of his career. And while Djokovic had looked drained during the match – even disinterested at times – this was a huge scalp nonetheless.

Such is the brilliance of Djokovic that pundits labelled this performance a mere anomaly. Indeed, after winning the Rogers Cup in July, the stage looked set for the Serbian to win his first ever Olympic gold medal. He made no secret of his desire to win before the Games began – this was the major title that has always been missing from Novak’s mantelpiece – and many saw him as the favourite to usurp Andy Murray. 

Yet, in only the first round, Djokovic came up against an inspired Juan Martin Del Potro – an Argentinian ranked 141 in the world at the time – who defeated him 7-6 7-6. In tears, the world number one described the match as “one of the toughest losses in (his) career”. 

And it was after this defeat that whisperings started over why Djokovic’s form had dropped in the major competitions. Exhaustion, problems with focus, and unspecified personal issues were all put forward as potential reasons for the collapse of such a tennis titan. 

The veracity of these rumours was tested at the US Open in late August, where Djokovic appeared well-rested despite reports that he was carrying a knee injury that had the potential to hamper his progress. His first week in the competition was perfect: two walkovers and one win enabled Djokovic to rest his knee and achieve full fitness for the second week. And another player retirement – Tsonga in the quarter-finals – meant that on reaching the final, Djokovic had spent eight hours less on the court than his opponent, Stan Wawrinka. 

Again, though, it was the Serbian who looked the more tired in a four-set defeat. He suffered from blisters in the fourth set, but, as pundit Mark Petchey noted, that was only because Wawrinka was so commanding. Afterwards, Djokovic declared that he had had issues with focus and desire over the past months. But in this match, there was no doubting his passion: the simple fact was that Wawrinka was dominant.

And then, two weeks ago, Djokovic succumbed to another defeat which did little to dispel the murmurs of his imminent demise. On the ATP tour, to lose is forgivable, but in the Grand Slams (and at the Olympic Games) it is far less so. 

There were signs of a lack of form even when Djokovic was winning Slams early on this year – with gruelling matches against Giles Simon in the Australian Open and Mikhail Kukushkin in the Davis Cup, and even a 6-0 loss in a set to Thomaz Bellucci at the Italian Open. Djokovic is now, undeniably, beatable.

The most plausible theory is that he has lost his mental presence on the court. In the past, while occasionally vulnerable to frustration, the Serbian would channel his temper into improving his game.

Now, however, it seems that when he is not playing well, he allows his temper to overcome him. Players have got into his head – like Del Potro, Wawrinka, and now Roberto Bautista Agut in Shanghai – and used that to prevail over him. Ultimately, it is not that Djokovic’s game has been worked out – he has just lost the mental edge he used to have.

This is, of course, something that can be worked on in time. But what Novak Djokovic has shown is that he has a weakness. It is the unforced error, not the forced error, that makes him angry. He may yet regain the ‘unbeatable’ tag next year, but this half of the season will have given players throughout the rankings hope and confidence that no player, not even Novak Djokovic, cannot lose