He didn’t even have to say goodbye.
Novak Djokovic, the man who has enjoyed one of the greatest years on a tennis court ever known, was eliminated from the ATP World Tour Finals at the round-robin stage on Friday because Tomas Berdych turned his match against David Ferrer inside out and won 3-6, 7-5, 6-1.
By then, the world No. 1 was back at his Thames-side hotel with his bags packed. And he only had himself and a good friend to blame. Earlier, in the afternoon session, Djokovic allowed his Serbian Davis Cup colleague Janko Tipsarevic to fight back from a set down and beat him 3-6, 6-3, 6-3.
Had Ferrer beaten Berdych, Djokovic most likely — though not definitely — would have gone through as No. 2 in his group of four. As it was, the "freshness," to use his own word, was missing from his play as Tipsarevic grabbed the opportunity to beat his pal for the first time in four tour meetings. The pair can talk about it when they vacation together in the Maldives next week.
In the meantime, Djokovic talked about the loss and came up with pretty much the same explanation as Rafael Nadal after his elimination the day before. The year had been too long. Quite simply, he had won too much, which means that he had played a lot more tennis than players losing in the quarters or semis or earlier. Playing through to a Sunday gives finalists much less time for recuperation and, if you win 10 tournaments (including three Grand Slams) as Djokovic did, the body starts complaining. He was forced to default a Davis Cup tie against Argentina the week after winning the US Open, and he has been suffering from a sore shoulder in recent days.
“Obviously, mentally, I feel a little drained,” Djokovic admitted. “I just don’t have that freshness in my mind for the matches that I had in all the 10 months of the year. But this is something to be expected after the year I had. I had an unbelievable year. Nothing can ruin that. I will always remember this year as the best year of my life.”
Tipsarevic, the world No. 9 who only got into the tournament when Andy Murray pulled out, admitted that Djokovic was not at his best.
“But I managed to play good because this is all new for me,” said the studious Serb, who reads Russian novels in his spare time. “This is something amazing. When something is new, you’re always excited about it. Suddenly, out of nothing, I got a chance to play and now I am really happy to beat Novak, finally, even though it was not the Novak of the US Open and Wimbledon.”
Berdych, who will play Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in the second of Saturday’s semifinals, eventually proved too strong for a player he had not beaten since Hamburg in 2005. Ferrer had won their previous four encounters and seemed well set for a fifth before the big Czech started to get his powerful forehand organized and grabbed the second set on a late break back after the usually tireless Spaniard had served at 4-3.
This time, however, Ferrer did begin to look weary as his first-serve percentage fell away to just 33 percent in the final set. It did not augur well for the task of facing a resurgent Roger Federer, a player who has beaten him 11 straight times.
“Of course I am tired,” Ferrer said. “The season is very, very long. We know that. But tomorrow I will try to do my best. I will try to fight a lot. It is an important match here in the semifinals. And then I have to play another important event, the final of the Davis Cup.”
For some, it never ends.
