With what couldn’t be more fitting than a perfect match to end the stay in California, Novak Djokovic has come away as the champion of the 2014 BNP Paribas Open after a frustratingly hectic this-way, that-way match.
From early on, Djokovic’s head seemed non-present at times. As his frustration grew most apparent after dropping the second set, a sort of switch in persona occurred. Something that has been lingering in the minds of tennis analysts for some time at this point in the careers of the two, being, what ever has happened to Federer has happened exactly the opposite to Djokovic. The Serb is missing his mental edge, something he was once greatly feared for. Instead, we are seeing a revival of Roger Federer and his ability to not only have 100 percent control himself on court but to also claim at least 51 percent control of the entire court leaving the opponent most of the time under the Swiss Maestro’s spell. While most players in the Top Ten are well above and beyond in their abilities to consciously revive themselves mentally during a match at crucial moments raising their chance of overcoming, Federer’s determination and uncharted ability give the man a seemingly supernatural ability to command the match to his direction of choice giving his opponent little to no chance.
How ever, there are outliers and this weekend it was Novak Djokovic, who, after seeming to be just about done after failing to win a number of hard-earned shots, did have enough juice to revive himself just when he needed it. By the 3rd set, a surprising comeback seemed to catch Federer off guard, leading to a number of far too relaxed shots by the Swiss that came off the racquet head awkwardly and sent the ball flying out of the court or had set Djokovic up for some easy winners at the net.
An appropriate way to end Roger Federer’s incredible 11 match winning streak this year, Novak Djokovic now raised the Head-to-Head record between the two to 16-17 before a crowd of 16,841 and an overall attendance for the tournament of 431,527, the largest attendance of all tournaments outside of the 4 Majors.
Novak Djokovic will now recuperate and enjoy his US$1,000,000 in prize money before heading to Miami for the Sony Open Tennis beginning on the 19th of the month.
