By Chris Oddo | Wednesday, June 3, 2015

 

Out of the frying pan and into the fire? After an epic victory over Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic now faces the challenge of letting it go so he can move forward.

Photo Source: Mark Vincent/ AP

If you’ve just achieved something you’ve yearned to do for the better part of a decade, how do you go about forgetting it as quickly as possible? That is the challenge that Novak Djokovic now faces after his clinical 7-5, 6-3, 6-1 takedown of Rafael Nadal at Roland Garros on Wednesday.

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Beating Nadal on the red clay of Roland Garros—a place where the Spaniard has compiled nine titles and lost only twice—should be worthy of a ticker-tape parade, several bottles of wine and perhaps a trip to the south of France for some beach time. But Novak Djokovic must get on the horse and continue his quest for the title he most covets, for there are two more difficult encounters still lying between himself and completion of the career Grand Slam.

Judging from his words, the Serb made that realization long ago.

“Right now I'm aware that this is a big win which I will enjoy tonight but tomorrow is a new day and I will move on,” he told reporters.

He will move on with confidence, too, having planned for and executed a ruthless takedown of the greatest clay-courter in the history of the game, on the court where the king of clay carved his legendary reputation. Even in press, the match long over, Djokovic seemed wired, almost still buzzing with a sense of mission impossible finally achieved.

“It’s definitely a big win,” he said, breathing excitedly. “A match I will remember for a long time.”

It was the type of unequivocal statement that Djokovic has produced for years against Nadal, but never at Roland Garros. With an 0-6 record against Nadal in Paris hanging over him like black cloud, Djokovic emerged sublime on this day in every facet of his game. Even his letdowns were perfectly timed, as Djokovic let slip a 4-0 lead in the first set (he completely gagged on a forehand sitter to hand Nadal the second break in the seventh game) before turning up the heat on a suddenly grooving Nadal to claim the opener on his sixth set point in the 12th game.

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The Serb couldn’t afford to lose that rollicking first set, and he didn’t.

“In general Novak was in control most of the time,” Nadal would later say. “He was better than me. That’s it. Simple.”

Nadal hung close in the second set but when Djokovic pressured him in the eighth game Nadal displayed some of the looseness that has plagued him this spring. Twice he reared back and fired forehands and missed to hand Djokovic break points. On the second, when another forehand sailed, Djokovic had the critical break.

Nadal would push back in the next game, saving three set points with gutty play, but Djokovic answered with a heavenly half-volley dropper to create a fourth set point, which he converted for a two sets to love lead.

There were so many perfectly placed balls off the racquet of the Serb—it’s the only way to keep a juggernaut like Nadal at bay on the slow red clay of Roland Garros—but the half-volley sticks out as the signature shot. Part genius, part instinct, part destiny, the ball caromed off the racquet and floated at a devilish angle across the net and over to the sideline. If Djokovic tried to produce that shot a thousand times consecutively, surely he’d not hit one that well.

Djokovic didn’t need to be that perfect on this day, nor will he likely need to be to win his first Roland Garros title on Sunday and become the 8th man in the history of the Open Era to claim the career Grand Slam, but years of falling short against Nadal seemed to leave him no choice but to plan for and produce the perfect match.

With that second set behind him the wind behind Djokovic picked up. The force was with him, his luck was with him, and Nadal’s warrior spirit, so doggedly bullish over his last 39 victories in Paris and 70 of his previous 71, was finally, if only for a fleeting moment, tamed.

A double-fault from the Spaniard ended the match, a bittersweet ending. But sweetness soon returned as Nadal exited the court to a round of applause from the Parisian crowd. He turned and raised his arms to salute them, surveying the scene, vanquished for today, but king of this clay forever.

“I understand that people now question his game,” Djokovic said afterwards, “but if you need a reminder of who he is you just need to take a look at his statistics.”

Statistics won’t matter this weekend as Djokovic prepares to follow through on his achievement in the semifinals against Andy Murray and—he hopes—faces either Stan Wawrinka or Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in the final. He’s proven over the course of his 27-match winning streak that he’s the best player in the world. Now he just has to come back to earth, recharge the emotional battery and find the level that he carried to the court against Nadal on two more occasions.

It sounds simple on paper, but in reality it won’t be.

“You go through more emotions than for any other match, of course playing against Rafa in Roland Garros,” said Djokovic. “It’s a special thing. It’s a special match.”