{"id":5975,"date":"2018-01-14T19:35:29","date_gmt":"2018-01-15T00:35:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/?p=5975"},"modified":"2018-01-14T20:05:55","modified_gmt":"2018-01-15T01:05:55","slug":"djokovic-prospects-iffy-short-term-bright-long-term","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/2018\/01\/14\/djokovic-prospects-iffy-short-term-bright-long-term\/","title":{"rendered":"Djokovic Prospects Iffy in the Short Term, Bright in the Long Term"},"content":{"rendered":"

If the game of Novak Djokovic were a stock, it would be a blue chip every bit as azure as the courts of Oz.<\/p>\n

But it’s taken some hits lately.\u00a0 Still loaded with value, an elbow injury has been a drag on performance.<\/p>\n

Warning:\u00a0 Do not day trade this stock.\u00a0 It’s too risky to expect great things in the near term at the 2018 Australian Open.\u00a0 Buy now.\u00a0 Buy low.\u00a0 Hold.<\/p>\n

A six-time champion Down Under, let’s look at why Djokovic is so iffy for this tournament.<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. \u00a0Overuse injury<\/strong>:\u00a0 Djokovic retired in the quarterfinals of Wimbledon last season because of a hurt right elbow.\u00a0 Then he announced to the world it had been bothering him for over a year.\u00a0 Injuries that require surgery take a more predictable trajectory.\u00a0 Overuse injuries that are healing on their own make up a timetable known to no one– not even the world’s best doctors.\u00a0 After periods of rest, the athlete “tests” the injury to see if it’s healed.\u00a0 As of December, Djokovic was still in the testing phase, working with his coaches on court at home in Monte Carlo.\u00a0 Last week, he showed up in Australia wearing a sleeve on the elbow that he hadn’t been wearing in those December workouts.\u00a0 Translation:\u00a0 Injury status highly uncertain.<\/li>\n
  2. \u00a0 New Service Motion<\/strong>:\u00a0 Djokovic said he changed his technique on the serve, abbreviating the motion, to take stress off the elbow.\u00a0 The new motion brings the racquet directly back after the toss, instead of letting it loop down first.\u00a0 In truth, from the point of acceleration, the motion is almost identical to what it was.\u00a0 The whip on the elbow is still there.\u00a0 Whether this change will help the injury is extremely unclear, especially since the technique is brand spanking new.<\/li>\n
  3. \u00a0 New Racquet Flirtation<\/strong>:\u00a0 Djokovic was photographed testing a new racquet with a different string pattern in December.\u00a0 It’s possible he was also testing different racquets as a means of protecting the elbow.\u00a0 At his exhibition match last week, when he beat Dominic Thiem, he appeared to use his old racquet.\u00a0 Time spent using a new racquet is less time preparing with the old standby.<\/li>\n
  4. New Shoes<\/strong>:\u00a0 Nole recently signed with Asics.\u00a0 It may seem trivial, but for a guy who’s struggled with blisters on his feet– this is no small thing.\u00a0 Djokovic also famously painted over the swoosh on a pair of Nikes he was wearing at Wimbledon.\u00a0 He was endorsed by Adidas at the time.\u00a0 Shoes are a big deal, and these new bad boys haven’t been tested on these particular feet in extreme heat during 5-set matches.<\/li>\n
  5. New Coaches<\/strong>:\u00a0 Hello!\u00a0 This is perhaps the biggest change of all.\u00a0 Where to begin?\u00a0 He’s using 8-time major champion Andre Agassi, the recently retired Radek Stepanek, a strategy guru, a fitness and physio team, and a spiritual advisor, among others.\u00a0 His teams have teams.\u00a0 This has to be one of the largest support staffs in the sport.\u00a0 It’s a lot of chefs in the (gluten-free) (vegan) (eco-friendly) Djokovic kitchen.\u00a0 The biggest change could be that Agassi is so different in overall approach from Boris Becker, who encouraged net play and helped Nole to six Grand Slam Titles.<\/li>\n
  6. \u00a0 New Child<\/strong>:\u00a0 There’s another human being on the planet who calls Novak “Dad.”\u00a0 Or at least she will when she starts talking.\u00a0 He’s human.\u00a0 Anyone would be affected, though the overall effect could be quite positive.\u00a0 Just because a stock is volatile doesn’t mean it’s a bad bet– it’s simply a risky one.\u00a0 Chances are the 30-year-old Serb will figure out what works for him because he’s a smart player who thrives on information.\u00a0 He’s also a winner.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    If the game of Novak Djokovic were a stock, it would be a blue chip every bit as azure as the courts of Oz. But it’s taken some hits lately.\u00a0 Still loaded with value, an elbow injury has been a drag on performance. Warning:\u00a0 Do not day trade this stock.\u00a0 It’s too risky to expect […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2038,"featured_media":5480,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"1","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3,7,9],"tags":[2137,2427,22],"class_list":["post-5975","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-atp","category-australian-open","category-news","tag-2018-australian-open","tag-djokovic","tag-novak-djokovic"],"modified_by":"Yesh Ginsburg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5975","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2038"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5975"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5975\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5480"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5975"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5975"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5975"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}