SU is a long-time Novak Djokovic fan going back to 2011 when he figured some things out and embarked on a sustained run of excellence. Despite a 2-year hiatus in 2016 – 2018 when he went a bit too far into the world of mindfulness, he has competed with the all-time greats of Nadal and Federer in impressive fashion. Consider: over that time period he is something like 20-9 vs. Federer and 20-10 against Nadal. SU agrees that Federer is the GOAT – he just is with his style of play and great career record. But history will put Djokovic on equal footing with Federer and Nadal when all is said and done – and deservedly so.
Both Nadal and Federer always get the maximum crowd support, and yesterday among the 15,000 spectators in Center Court, Djokovic probably had a handful of supporters. It’s hard for a team to win on the road in a hostile environment, but SU says it’s even harder for a single competitor to pull it off. The British are not as raucous as the NY fans which cheered every Djokovic service fault back in the 2015 US Open finals but they love, love, love Fed. Djokovic, to his credit, was prepared and is very into visualization. He is an incredibly thoughtful and smart dude, and goes beyond just physical preparation for these types of matches. See some of his post-match comments:
But SU says what made this win even more impressive is that Djokovic is also the President of the ATP Men’s Players Council and the Men’s Tour is going through a lot of turmoil. They are firing the ATP CEO and there is a major battle underway regarding the splitting up of prize money. Djokovic is in favor of giving the lesser players a bigger share for winning in the early rounds of tournaments while the top stars like Federer and Nadal feel that the fans come out to see them and they should be getting their fair share. On top of that, one of the Board members, Justin Gimelstob, beat up his ex-wife’s boyfriend and had to resign. Djokovic is still close to him and takes a lot of heat from the media over that. There were some contentious press conferences in the early rounds of the tournament and a 7-hour council meeting right before the start of the tournament. This is a huge distraction. So, he’s not just focusing on his own game these days.
SU has said it before: for fans of men’s tennis, this is a golden era not to ever be repeated in terms of greatness.
Regarding the Edwin Encarnacion watch, he knocked in 3 runs Friday night which will ensure that he will be in the line up now for the next 3 weeks. It is painful. Still hovering around .215.
Sports Update Intergalactic 
Sanchez, after a rough 2018 season is back. No reason why Encarnacion can’t do the same thing but hopefully within the same year.
If Fedeter had won it would have solidified him as the greatest of all time. Now he will probably have to share that role with Djokovic.
I watch very little tennis but yesterday’s final was as good as any I’ve seen.The match itself seemed far more meaningful than the outcome. These guys are both incredible. And how to they play such a grueling match for 5 hours and look pretty much the same at the end as they did at the start. The level of fitness that needs to accompany the skill and power is unbelievable.
Completely agree with SU in regards to Novak’s excellence. The guy is amazing. Roger had his chance to serve out for the win, but Novak broke him back. But Novak brings some of the crowd displeasure upon himself with all the faces / eye rolls / fist pumps and taunts/ hand to his ear, etc It is who he is – and drives him to excellence. But he does seem to feed into the lack of crowd support.