On June 26, 1987, in the second round at Wimbledon, two-time defending champion, Germany’s Boris Becker, suffered an astounding defeat at the hands of the 70th ranked player in the world, an Australian named Peter Doohan whom most casual tennis fans had never heard of. On Saturday, as he sat in the players’ box watching the man he coaches play his third round match, Boris Becker might just have been haunted by that 29-year-old memory.
When American Sam Querrey ranked 41 in the world, defeated the World No. 1 Novak Djokovic, he pulled off arguably the biggest upset on the men’s side at Wimbledon in the 29 years since Becker's defeat. It wasn’t an upset just because the favourite lost, but also because of the manner in which the match unfolded.
When the players left Court One at the All England Club on Friday night with the American leading two sets to love, it looked like rain had come to the slightly off-form defending champion’s rescue. Querrey was faced with a long, possibly sleepless night, thinking about what he was poised to do. He would have to come back on a brand new day, and win an entire new set. Winning one set against Djokovic is hard, winning two sets is against the odds, winning three seemingly impossible. Surely Querrey would choke under the tremendous pressure, many of us thought.
Feet of clay
When the match resumed on Saturday with Djokovic winning the first four games in the third set, order appeared to have been restored. Sam Querrey was going to be the Kevin Anderson of 2016. Once again, Djokovic would rally from a two sets to love deficit to win the match, probably en route to the title.
But then the rain came again. And again. And as Djokovic failed to convert break point after break point, his frustration became increasingly apparent. Our sporting idols have feet of clay. Or, as my mother said to me in a text after the match, even robots can malfunction.
Leading up to this year’s Wimbledon, Djokovic had been so utterly dominant that men’s tennis was becoming a little boring. I predicted (wrongly, of course) only a few days ago that Djokovic was almost certainly going to win the tournament.
Just to put things in perspective once more, until this third round tie, Djokovic had won 30 straight Grand Slam matches and four Grand Slam titles, the first man to accomplish the latter since Rod Laver in 1969. He had won Wimbledon in the two previous years, and reached 28 Grand Slam quarterfinals in a row.
Before the tournament began, American bookmakers gave the Serb odds of minus 150 to win the whole thing. He was not just the heavy favourite to win this title but to possibly become the first person since Steffi Graf in 1988 to complete the Golden Grand Slam by winning all four majors and the Olympics in a single year. In hindsight, all the pressure was on Djokovic, and it was he who crumbled.
Memories of Sampras
The fourth set was interrupted three times by rain. Each time, the players had to come back and start over. But that was not the only factor that caused drama. The most astonishing statistic of the match is this one: Djokovic had 12 break points in the fourth set alone but was able to convert just one.
Nearly every time Querrey faced a break point, he served an ace. It was almost like watching Pete Sampras play on grass once more. Still, at 5-4, after finally breaking the 6 feet 6 inch tall American, when Djokovic was serving to take the match to a deciding set, it seemed all over. But Querrey managed to break back.
In the tiebreak, Djokovic got the minibreak and was leading, once again poised to take it to a fifth set. And yet again, Querrey broke back and then took the lead himself. In the end, Djokovic squandered too many chances.
In the weeks to come there will be many theories about why Djokovic lost. Some might be tempted to blame it on the numerous rain delays which make it harder for players to focus, regain momentum, and warm up. The first week of Wimbledon this year saw so many rain delays that, for the first time since 2004, the organisers announced matches on the middle Sunday to clear the huge backlog.
However, as Djokovic pointed out in his press conference after the match, the rain situation “was the same for both.” In fact if there had been no rain on Friday evening, Querrey might well have won in straight sets without allowing Djokovic the opportunity to come back fresher the next day.
In the same press conference, when asked if he was 100 per cent fit, Djokovic said he was not but then refused to use any injury or health problems he might have had as an excuse. There are early rumours about a neck problem or a cold. But it would be unfair to take credit away from Querrey, who has a huge serve and powerful forehand – in short, a game made for grass. A former Queens Club champion, Querrey came out swinging in this match and never let up. As his opponent summed up afterwards, “he simply overpowered me.”
Djokovic’s exit leaves a gaping hole in the men’s draw. Suddenly, a host of players might begin to fancy their chances. Andy Murray now moves up as the bookmakers’ firm favourite, while sentimental hero Roger Federer might be feeling more optimistic. Other players still in the draw, such as Marin Cilic, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and even Nick Kyrgios, might well be inspired by Querrey’s unexpected win. The fact is that no one else looks invincible the way Djokovic did, and suddenly the draw has been split wide open.
The gruelling nature of modern tennis
But perhaps the bigger issue here is not Wimbledon at all. This year, pundits had begun to think that the calendar Grand Slam and even the Golden Grand Slam might be possible after all. If anyone could pull off this astonishing feat, surely it would be Djokovic. He was halfway through the majors. But what happened on Saturday simply reminds us of just how difficult that is in this modern era of gruelling competition.
The angst on Djokovic’s face was there for all to see as he realised his dream was beginning to slip away. Consider the enormity of the task ahead of him for a moment. Even if he had won Wimbledon, he would have had to continue to win at least the US Open and ideally the Olympics too. This particular opportunity only arises once in four years.
If we leave the Olympics out of it, just to make things a little easier, even just winning the four majors in a single year has proved impossible for the men since Rod Laver did it in 1969, and let’s not forget that he had to play on only two different surfaces — clay and grass. (The only man to have won majors on hard courts, clay and grass in a single year is Rafa Nadal.)
Last year, faced with the opportunity to complete the sweep in New York, Serena Williams faltered at the final hurdle to a much lower ranked player. Tennis, unlike many other sports, barely has an off season. Players just get a month off at the end of the year. The pressure of winning day in and day out is immense for athletes like Djokovic, who aspire to go where no man has gone before.
Perhaps Federer summed it up best after Djokovic’s shock defeat: “I know we get carried away, we think it’s impossible to beat him, all these things, but clearly (Novak is) beatable. It’s not impossible. He cannot win straight 200 matches in tennis. It’s not possible.”
And so the calendar Grand Slam remains as elusive as ever. Will any man be able to do it in the Open Era? Only time will tell. For now, it remains the ultimate, improbable dream.