Novak Djokovic finished 2023 as world number one on the ATP Tour, and that's not a coincidence because he was the best player this year.
We could go over the numbers to show you how Djokovic ended up being the best player, but if you followed the season even semi-regularly, you already know that.
Just the fact that he won three out of four Grand Slam trophies shows you how good he was. He wasn't the only good player this year, but out of all that competed, the Serbian does stand out.
You'd have very few people willing to argue that he wasn't the best player this year. According to former WTA legend, Tracy Austin, who talked to Tennis.com, Djokovic had an incredible year and continues to improve at 36.
What an incredible 2023 Novak Djokovic had. To win three majors in his age-36 year shows that his hunger to excel never lets up. Novak is always looking to make those one-percent improvements: everything from diet, to agility, to strokes like his serve and forehand volleys. He’s set new records in men's tennis: 24 Grand Slam singles titles, and eight times finishing the year No. 1 in the world. Those are big achievements that might be unreachable.
Only those who come after us will be able to judge whether they were unreachable or not, but if we look at the long history of tennis, they certainly seem that way. Pete Sampras' record once seemed unreachable so things can obviously change.
As we've seen with the likes of Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz, the sport will continue to produce great players. Time will tell how far they'll ultimately go. They'll not work hard to overcome Djokovic and the standard this set. As Tracy points out, he's borderline invincible.
Novak played six tiebreakers—55 total points at Roland Garros. Not once on those 55 points did he make an unforced error! As we know, in tennis, some points are bigger than others. And when it’s most important, Novak just locks down. He's at the stage now where he’s competing not just versus his opponents, but also against history.
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