Patrick McEnroe heaps praise on Novak Djokovic after record breaking Grand Slam haul: "There's no better adjuster"

ATP
Wednesday, 14 June 2023 at 22:30
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Patrick McEnroe praised Novak Djokovic after he achieved the record of 23 Grand Slam titles at the 2023 French Open.
Djokovic's championship at Roland Garros gave him his 23rd Grand Slam title, making him the man with the most Slams in history, surpassing Rafael Nadal with 22 and Roger Federer with 20.
Only two female tennis players can claim to have a comparable record to the current world No. 1, as Serena Williams also won 23 titles like 'Nole,' and Margaret Court holds the absolute record with 24. John McEnroe's brother, Patrick, highlighted Djokovic's ability to adapt to different moments within a match.
“Novak has that ability, which is part of the reason why he's the greatest ever. Understanding when he needs to be aggressive, when he needs to be neutral, when to be defensive, when to go to the slice, when to come in, when to take chances on the second serve. There's no better adjuster to what's going on, ever!” he said.
“Part of it is because he's so malleable with his strokes. I've talked to sports people who love watching Roger [Federer], we all did. Nadal’s got this intensity. How can Djokovic be so good? Because they can't see it,” McEnroe opined in Holding Court podcast.
“They don't really get tennis. They don't get the fundamental, the technique, his ability to calibrate shots with the exact same swings to hit the ball at 55% or 95% and everything in between. That’s his greatness and his ability to manage over the course of a match,” he added.
McEnroe recalled Novak Djokovic's loss to Daniil Medvedev in the final of the 2021 US Open and mentioned how difficult it is to defeat Djokovic in a best-of-five sets match:
“Not only fitness-wise is he arguably even better than these guys [other tennis players], but because he has so many different ways to play over the course of a long match, it starts to favor him even more and more. Unless he hits the wall physically, which is it in my view is kind of the only way to beat him in best of five,

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“Medvedev, when he beat him at the [US] Open, Novak hit the wall emotionally, physically in that match. And then Novak of course gets him back shortly thereafter,” McEnroe stated.
“Unless you're Roger, you just beat him because you're Roger. Or you're Rafa, you grind them down because you can do that, he can do that on clay and to a certain extent he can be there on a hardcourt,” he concluded.

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