Kohlschreiber Shuts Down Djokovic’s Opportunity

An inanimate Novak Djokovic was bounced out of the French Open today by German Philipp Kohlschreiber 6-4 6-4 6-4 after 2 hours and 21 minutes of play. Djokovic was sluggish and could not make any adjustments. Kohlschreiber, to his credit, played a solid and efficient match. The German did not give Djokovic any errors or blips that might allow the Serb to get back into the match.

The defeat is a lost opportunity for Djokovic to cap off his European clay-court season. He was able to turn around his uninspiring start of the season into a solid clay-court season. The Serb was the second-best player on clay this year, and the loss now puts this progress back into inconsistent territory. The French Open draw gave Djokovic an excellent opportunity to play Nadal in the final, and a chance to gain on Roger Federer and Andy Murray in points. Djokovic is actually capable of winning another grand slam title and moving up in the rankings, but bad decisions and self-sabotage continue to impede him from doing so.

His first problem is that he has never taken care of his fitness. That is the real difference between the top-tier players and everyone else. Federer and Nadal already had the physical fitness, and Murray and Verdasco worked hard in the off-season, which is paying off now. Djokovic addressed this by hiring a new fitness coach over a month ago, but he is already at a disadvantage from the others.

The second horrible decision is to change his racket at the end of last season. It took him about six months to get used to the new racket. In the meantime, he could not control his shots. This affected his confidence, and his play suffered the early part of the season. The inconsistent results allowed Andy Murray to overtake the Djokovic for the three spot.

The final bad decision is to participate in his family’s tournament in Serbia the week before the French Open. Nadal complained about the scheduling of the Madrid Masters, which did not give him the preparation he would have liked for the French Open -- that tournament took place two weeks before Roland Garros. The other top-six players took the week prior to Roland Garros off. It seemed like this was another sketchy decision, but Djokovic looked like he might get away with it. Today, it caught up with him.

Djokovic is also not helped by the self-sabotage that seems to pop up at inopportune moments. Last year’s Wimbledon, he was hot on the heels of Nadal and threatened to overtake Nadal’s two spot. Marat Safin managed to bounce the Serb out of the tournament in the second round. At the Australian Open this year, he was positioned to take Federer’s second spot. Instead of defending his title, the Serb ended up retiring in the quarterfinals due to heat exhaustion. This week, he was looking to put himself in a good spot to stay in contention with Murray and Federer, but that opportunity has gone out of the window.

Djokovic’s team needs to make better decisions in terms of his tennis career. It seems like they jump on every short-term decision rather than looking at the long term. Is more important to make five million dollars for changing rackets or sticking with what is working and having more consistent results? Is it more important for him to play in a small, local tournament right before the French Open or giving him some rest that might put him in contention of the title?

(Images: FFT)