The Enduring Significance of No. 23 in Djokovic’s Career | SMH
Novak Djokovic is now alone at the men’s tennis summit, writes Marc McGowan. The No.23 is one of the most famous in all sports. Michael Jordan, LeBron James, David Beckham and Australia’s own Shane Warne have been legendary athletes who achieved greatness with that number on their backs.
Tennis, too, has an affinity with 23 (Serena Williams retired with that many grand slams), and now even more so with Novak Djokovic’s historic French Open victory on Sunday night that made him the most successful men’s grand slam singles champion.
The Serbian star’s 7-6 (7-1 ), 6-3 , 7-5 defeat of Norway’s Casper Ruud will forever be remembered as the moment Djokovic became beyond all doubt the greatest men’s player of his generation – and probably ever.
He boasts 23 grand slam singles titles, snapping his deadlock with Spaniard Rafael Nadal, the undisputed king of clay, who was not fit enough to play at Roland-Garros this year. He even joined Jordan, James and co. in wearing the No.23 after pulling on a jacket post-triumph to recognise his feat. Fittingly, this happened in 2023.
Ruud summed it up perfectly: ‘‘ Another day, another record for you, and another day you rewrite tennis history. It’s tough to explain how incredible it is, how good you are, and what an inspiration you are to so many people around the world – I know this probably tastes the best of all.’’
Djokovic reclaimed the No.1 ranking from his semi-final victim, Carlos Alcaraz, and is the sole man to win every grand slam at least three times. He won a 10th Australian Open in January, has triumphed seven times at Wimbledon, and now also the French Open and US Open on three occasions.
A serious case could be mounted that he is the best active athlete in all sports. He has never captured the calendar grand slam – winning all four majors in the same year – but is halfway there in 2023.
Source: https://www.smh.com.au/sport/tennis/why-sport-s-famous-no-23-will-forever-matter-to-incomparable-djokovic-20230612-p5dfqv.html
