The GOAT still has something up his sleeve

Djoko is still alive but damn, it’s tough...

A set lost against Majchrzak, a set lost against Kovacevic, this start of the tournament isn’t perfect for Djoko but is it really a surprise? He’s rarely comfortable in this tournament and less and less dominant as time goes by; it’s rare to see Djokovic dish out beatdowns now. With age it’s normal and inevitable anyway, he can’t keep the same intensity for an entire match and it seems more and more like he has to pick his battles, in my opinion. This Masters 1000 format isn’t so bad for him since there’s always a rest day between matches, which helps him maximize his recovery. Despite the sets he’s dropped, he’s doing good things, but it’s Djoko, so I focus on the negatives because that’s what we need to try to gauge. I’m finding it harder and harder to see him produce huge performances against the new top players on tour, and yet he’s still rated highly.

Favorite against Draper, who’s the defending champion—does that make sense? I’m not really sure. Draper is also coming back from injury and isn’t yet at his best, but he’s so much more impressive in his game that he can already believe in reaching a quarterfinal. His first two rounds were a bit like Djoko’s: he loses a set against Agut and probably deserved to lose one against Cerundolo, but he’s still playing very well. We’ve got two players who are quite inconsistent at the moment, and even if Djoko is still Djoko, he’s not as dominant as before anymore—that’s just a fact, and his odds should reflect that.