By Richard Pagliaro | Wednesday, April 27, 2016

 

"Everyone and anyone can be beaten, but at the moment Novak’s consistency is making him just that little bit harder to beat," says Andy Murray.

Photo credit: Mark Peterson/Corleve

A dominant Novak Djokovic is so deeply entrenched as world No. 1 dislodging him from the top spot seems as about as likely as the All England Club switching surfaces.

World No. 2 Andy Murray knows the demands of defeating Djokovic are monumental. Djokovic has defeated Murray in 14 of their last 16 meetings and holds an impressive 22-9 lead in their head-to-head series.

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Djokovic's transcendent flight through tennis history continues. He has won 34 of his last 35 Grand Slam matches, trampled over his rivals reeling off 21 victories in his last 22 matches versus Top 10 opponents and is now occupying the rare air realized only by all-time champions.

Next month, Djokovic will try to capture his first Roland Garros championship to complete both the career Grand Slam and the Nole Slam holding all four Grand Slam crowns simultaneously.

Murray suggests there is a two-pronged path to defeating Djokovic:

1. Displace him from the baseline to shorten points.

2. Deny Djokovic his customary comfort zone by hitting him with multiple game plans.

"Everyone and anyone can be beaten, but at the moment Novak’s consistency is making him just that little bit harder to beat," Murray said in an interview with the Mutua Madrid Open before launching defense of his Madrid title next week. "He likes to play from the back of the court, he has incredibly consistent ground strokes, so he likes to draw the points out. I think more and more guys are trying to make the points against him shorter, they’ll move into the net a bit earlier and put him under pressure, however he has the ability to make shots from everywhere so it doesn’t always work."

The two-time Grand Slam champion says prolonged rallies are a losing proposition against Djokovic, who is well balanced off both forehand and backhand wings, covers the court as thoroughly as anyone and is extremely dangerous driving counter strikes.

For those reasons, Murray believes attacking net at times and dragging Djokovic forward in an effort to shorten points are critical to success against the world No. 1.

"It’s good to have multiple game plans against him," Murray said. "If one isn’t working you can switch to something different, it’s important to keep him guessing and make him as uncomfortable as possible."

Jiri Vesely made Djokovic's 2016 clay debut uncomfortable in Monte Carlo.

The 55th-ranked Vesely, who varied the spins and speeds of his serve deviously, banged his forehand with authority, pushed his opponent behind the baseline and exploited Djokovic's stubborn overuse of the drop shot by outclassing the top seed in the front court, in his 6-4, 2-6, 6-4 upset of Djokovic earlier this month. Vesely won 16 of 23 net points, including prevailing in several touch exchanges, putting Murray's blue print plan for defeating Djokovic into action.

Though Murray, a highly-skilled net player, hasn't been able to consistently use the front-court as a weapon against Djokovic, the 28-year-old Scot believes his best tennis is still ahead.

"Lots of things (motivate me), I still have a good few years ahead of me in my career, and I believe that my best years are still ahead," Murray said. "It would be easy for me to say that I want to win more Grand Slams, but the reality is that they are very difficult to win. I will just continue to prepare the best I can for every tournament I enter, so that I can compete as hard as I can for every title."

First brothers to reach the semi-finals in both the singles and doubles at the #AusOpen in the Open Era! #History pic.twitter.com/NJA1rrJGqR

— British Tennis (@BritishTennis) January 27, 2016