hey guys welcome to another edition of the Monday morning tennis rant
I'm here by the ocean contemplating what happened yesterday and this whole clay Court season has
been sad I'm going to tell you why it's been sad because of Rafa I am one of the biggest Rafa fans
ever we are so accustomed to watching Rafa play the French Open and dominate The Clay Court season
but it is what it is you cannot play tennis forever injuries have taken a toll on Rafa and
I hope that you can play next year and I'm grateful for all the great entertainment
that he provided and me with over the last almost 20 years but being a Rafa fan
I've watched Djokovic so much playing as Rafa and I watch these matches with a lot of emotion
and I've been able to see some things that Djokovic does that are to me
truly inexplicable they don't make sense they don't make sense for me as a coach
or as a player it is things that he does that nobody else seems to do and I'm going to tell you
what one of those things is if you remember when Djokovic played Federer this is going way
way back in the semifinals at the US Open and Federer was up 5 3 in the fifth 40-15 serving
and Federer on Match Point served this first serve to Novak's forehand and Novak
took a swing at his forehand went full blast and it almost looked like a tank that's what I
um I identified it as a tank shot you know what a tank shot is where you don't care you just
rip a ball not caring whether it's going to go in or not but he ripped this return Novak did
hit it for a winner and not only did he save that one match point he saved the other match
point and end up winning not only that match against Federer but the whole tournament so
prior to that match there were some matches that Novak would let go where he didn't fight
until the end so at that moment in time I thought that this was just a low percentage
play that he got extremely lucky on but I want to tell you that in the case of Novak
it's not luck at all I think this is one of the biggest strengths on the tennis courts
that I've ever seen think of a scenario where it's a really close situation in a set
a lot of tension and finally the other guy let's say Rafa for example
breaks Novak and normally what happens is that the guy that just broke serve his confidence goes up
the guy that just lost his serve his confidence goes down and the match can break wide open but
Novak is the best in history is breaking the serve right back but it's not just that it's how he does
it I remember when I told you about him going for that crazy forehand return winner at the U.S open
but that's exactly what Novak does when he starts losing he starts going for more
he starts playing more aggressive he starts playing more low percentage shots now listen
I've been a tennis coach for many many years and this is the last thing that I would recommend my
players to do because a normal tennis player even someone that plays professionally if they start
losing and they go for low percentage shots it usually doesn't work they start missing
and spraying the ball all over the place why because their confidence is a little bit down
a low percentage shot it's hard to pull off but in djokovic's case when he's losing and
he starts hitting harder his shots don't go out they start going in and this is something that's
inexplicable to me and this is why I've said this many times if we take the goats because
as Novak Djokovic said in his press conference if you call one player the goat your're disrespecting Borg
you're disrespecting Sampras you disrespecting Federer you're disrespecting Rafa they are all
goats but I've said this many times if we take a Nadal at his prime Federer in his Prime and compare them to Djokovic
Djokovic is a little bit better maybe one percent better than those two guys
who are in my opinion the best three players in the history of tennis there's one caveat
I do think on clay Nadal is a one percent better than Djokovic and he has proven that
but on any other surface Djokovic is just that little bit better than those guys and
listen I'm not saying that all the goals that I mentioned are not good at breaking
the serve right back there are Nadal does this too but in the manner that Djokovic does it was
something that drove me nuts as a Nadal fan I just couldn't wrap my head around it around it
because I've seen it so many times how can this guy start playing more aggressive start going
for more low percentage shots when he's losing and he doesn't get influenced by those decisions
in fact those decisions help him to break the serve right back and shift the momentum
back to his side of the Court that's something that is inexplicable that's something that
doesn't work for the vast majority of tennis players regardless of their level
but it works for him and that is why he's the goat and he deserves
all the titles that he has all the records that he has and listen guys we have to be honest I'm
going to be honest with you as a Rafa fan I know there's a lot of comparisons drawn between Rafa
and Novak but we have to be honest that if Novak was allowed to play those tournaments
over the last few years he would have gotten the record even sooner you're telling me that Novak
couldn't have won the U.S open last year for example please he is by far the best player in
the world right now I want to just mention one more thing about alcaraz because I saw a lot of
insane comments on Instagram calling Alcaraz pathetic the fact that he cramped in the
third set and Novak Djokovic was 37 years old didn't cramp but you gotta understand one thing
you can cramp from the pressure it's not necessarily that Alcaraz is not in shape he is
one of the greatest athletes that's ever stepped foot on a tennis court it's not that he's out of
shape but I'm going to tell you a personal story that will explain to you why tennis is
such a pressure sport so it's going back I don't know at least 20 years and I was playing a match
against this guy that I really didn't want to lose to he was ranked a lot lower than I was but
on that particular day the match was super close and it was third set tie break and I won this
important point I don't remember which point it was but I do remember that I pumped my fist still
holding onto my racket I went like this come on now because of this tension my hand cramped up
and my hand was stuck to the Racket and I couldn't move it so I had to take my other hand and Pry
my fingers open from the racket like this and I was able to finish the match and it goes to
show you that I wasn't cramping anywhere else in my body this was just a cramp that was created
from the pressure of the moment now you take this match that I played which was a match that nobody
cared about nobody was watching it was just my internal pressure that was making me cramp
multiply that match by a thousand or multiply it by ten thousand and now you understand what a
player like alcaraz is going through someone who is expected to be the next Rafael Nadal
he's also the number one player in the world he's playing against the Djokovic who had a horrendous
clay Court Season he lost to musseti in Monte Carlo he lost to Lajovic in Banja Luka and he lost to Rune
in Rome djokovic's worst clay court season by far on paper everybody had alcaraz as a favorite which
adds a tremendous amount of pressure but alcaraz knows that one of the most impossible things
in the tennis world is to beat Novak Djokovic in a grand slam tournament in best out of five sets
so in my opinion this is why he cramped there was a tremendous amount of pressure
I'm a big fan of alcaraz I do think he's the next big thing and he just not used to this type of
pressure he needs to become more accustomed to it and he's going to win the French Open
multiple times I have absolutely no doubt about that and that's why he cramped he got
outperformed by a master by the greatest tennis player that we've ever seen
on the tennis court and what makes him so great is not necessarily his forehand and his backhand if
you remember I made a video a while back where I said that Djokovic has the greatest forehand
of all time and you guys some of you guys didn't understand what I was talking about I said in the
beginning of that video listen Alcaraz Nadal Federer hit the forehand faster than Djokovic they hit
more winners the forehand is more stylistic if you will looks a lot better than Djokovic's forehand but
in the context of the game of tennis if we take a pressure situation remember what John Mcenroe said
the best players are the ones that perform the best under adversity so take a pressure moment
let's say six all in the fifth set tie break and you have a choice you can put your life earnings
on the line you can bet all your money on a player to make a forehand passing shot and you have the
choice of Djokovic Federer Nadal and alcaraz no disrespect to those forehands those are the
greatest forehands in the history of tennis but I'm choosing Djokovic because tennis is not all
about forehands tennis is up here and there is no doubt in my mind that Novak Djokovic it's mentally
the greatest player that we will ever see on the tennis court and this is coming from a Rafa fan