{"id":37016,"date":"2021-02-20T22:45:05","date_gmt":"2021-02-20T23:45:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=37016"},"modified":"2021-02-21T03:06:59","modified_gmt":"2021-02-21T03:06:59","slug":"mental-scarring-standing-in-djokovics-way","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=37016","title":{"rendered":"'Mental scarring' standing in Djokovic's way"},"content":{"rendered":"

Aussie tennis great Todd Woodbridge said that without COVID-19, Novak Djokovic<\/a> could have won all four majors last year – but mishaps in New York and Paris have left the world No.1 scarred.<\/p>\n

"When he won the Australian Open, he was about to go on a rampage," Woodbridge said on Wide World of Sports' The Morning Serve<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n

"If it had been a normal year, I think he could have won three of the four, he may have won four of the four."<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Watch the Australian Open with live streams of every court at 9Now. Click here to start watching!<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

Instead, he was infamously kicked out of the US Open<\/a> for smacking a ball at a line judge, and was then comfortably beaten by Rafael Nadal at Roland Garros<\/a>.<\/p>\n

"[These incidents] have some scarring that he has to get over … I think last year, mentally, has a bit of scarring which he somehow has to get rid of," Woodbridge said.<\/p>\n

\"Australian<\/p>\n

The three-time doubles champion at Melbourne Park said that tonight's men's singles final will be a test of Djokovic's mental strength moreso than physical.<\/p>\n

"He's still the best player in the world," Woodbridge said.<\/p>\n

"For me, it's a bit about how mentally he sits in this match tonight. Because it's been such a different year – and such a different tournament. To have fans, no fans, fans back, how does he react to that?<\/p>\n

"That's been a big part of his story when he's on the court, using the fans as energy, whether that's positive or negative."<\/p>\n

\"Medvedev<\/p>\n

Djokovic has a chance to win his ninth Australian Open tonight, and his third in a row. But standing in his way is Russian Daniil Medvedev<\/a>, who has won 20 straight matches, dating back to late last year.<\/p>\n

The 25-year-old is one of a slew of young guns looking to dethrone the big three of Djokovic, Nadal, and Roger Federer<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Australian quad wheelchair world No.1 Dylan Alcott praised the 'stone cold' attitude of Medvedev, and said all the pressure is on Djokovic.<\/p>\n

"This guy's never lost in the final, he's going for the records, I'm a nobody – it's all on you," Alcott said of Medvedev's mindset. "I love that."<\/p>\n

\"Australian<\/p>\n

Fresh off titles in both the singles and doubles in the men's quads<\/a>, Alcott said that "the gap is definitely closing" between the old guard and the new crop.<\/p>\n

"We saw Stefanos [Tsitsipas] take out Rafael Nadal, Medvedev can get it done tonight and beat Novak. Then there's a case that that baton is getting passed on," he said.<\/p>\n

"It's exciting to see these young guys really start taking it up to the big players – I think we need that in tennis."<\/p>\n

For a daily dose of the best of the breaking news and exclusive content from Wide World of Sports, subscribe to our newsletter by clicking here!<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Aussie tennis great Todd Woodbridge said that without COVID-19, Novak Djokovic could have won all four majors last year – but mishaps in New York […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37016"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=37016"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37016\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37018,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37016\/revisions\/37018"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=37016"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=37016"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=37016"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}