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I naturally found myself waking up early this Sunday to catch the Australian Open final, with Novak Djokovic on one side of the net and Stefanos Tsitsipas on the other. I don’t think it comes as a surprise to anyone that Djokovic is contending yet another final, dare I even say, we’ve even come to expect it, which is pretty ironic. As he stuffs one more trophy into an already brimming cabinet, we are less impressed with each new addition. Let us be clear, the magnitude of his achievements in tennis cannot be overstated; his list of achievements numbers longer than his weeks spent as world #1 (373 weeks). And though the man certainly knows how to hit a good forehand down-the-line, it’s not his strokes that lie at the core of his success, but his mindset. If you removed Djokovic from the world of tennis, rest assured you would find him making lives difficult for top contenders elsewhere. Projecting him as a contemporary in our domain, Djokovic would be an incredible founder.
Delivery is all that matters
The last twelve years in tennis have established Djokovic as one of the greatest to ever play the game, but ask anyone who was following the sport in the years preceding, and you’ll find there was a time where his success was hard to imagine. He made a strong start to his professional career, finishing the 2004 season ranked #187 up from #676 the previous year, 2005 as #83, 2006 as #16, and 2007 as #3. But that’s where the rise seemingly came to a halt. He also finished as #3 2008, 2009, and 2010. While he was certainly a force to be reckoned with, next to the great Roger and Rafa, he was always third in the pecking order, and in a sport where a year on tour is equivalent to seven human years, the entire world wrote off Djokovic as a champion, unable to climb out of the shadows of Roger and Rafa.
The entire world except Djokovic, that is, because in 2011 he pulled off what is undoubtedly the greatest season in tennis history, starting the season with a 41-match winning streak (meaning he won 7 tournaments in a row), clinching the world #1 spot for the first time on July 4th, and going 10–1 against Roger & Rafa that year; who was in who’s shadow now?
Fast forward to today, and this winning streak doesn’t even make it near the top of his accomplishments. Twelve years after that historic 2011 season, you will find his name at the top of almost every noteworthy record that is held in Tennis. A man who had been written off as a contender for the GOAT title did a lot more than contend, he shut the debate entirely.
You can see his meticulous focus on execution in every point he plays. Djokovic plays with a fundamentally different attitude: he is out to win every single point. For reference, during his stellar 2011 season, Djokovic won just 56% of the points he played. Winning just over half the points in tennis can translate to the most impressive season in the sport’s history. I’ve never seen a player internalise this as much as him. When you play Djokovic in a match, he won’t lose the point, so your only chance is to win it.
Creating opportunities
No doubt Djokovic himself was aware of his plateau at #3, so he changed things up. He attributes his success in subsequent years to a modified diet and physical training regimen, and that shows a remarkable ability to adapt. He is quick to try things where he sees the chance of improvement on the other side. Over the course of his career, he’s worked with some of the biggest tennis legends to improve specific parts of his game: Boris Becker, one of the greatest volleyers in tennis, Andre Agassi, master of the baseline, and now Goran Ivanišević, a formidable server. At every stage of his career, Djokovic has assembled a purpose-built team to improve very specific facets of his style.
In tennis, every shot is hit according to a predefined strategy devised for the given opponent. If they have a weak backhand, focus your shots there. If they’re good defenders, try to finish the points quickly. Play enough matches, and you give your opponents plenty of opportunities to find your weakness, so Djokovic adapts; he continues to add to his arsenal of shots while plugging the holes. He creates the opportunity to defend against any strategy he might face.
Djokovic viscerally showcases this focus on creating opportunities through his returns. Novak is the best returner in the game, and it’s obvious why this is such an asset: it literally creates an opportunity to win the point. I said earlier that Djokovic plays every point with the intention to win, and he does this simply by keeping the ball in play. A ball in play means he has a non-zero (you could even argue >0.5) probability of winning the point, which for the non-mathematically inclined is infinitely higher than 0. Tennis analysts unanimously agree that Djokovic’s superpower is his ability to return the opponent’s serve: it places the opponent under extreme mental pressure that regardless how well they serve, the ball hurls back at them.
And so we find that the career of the best tennis player in history is built on a simple principle: keep the ball in play.
As a founder
I’m certainly not the first to liken the world of startups to sports, yet I am in fact a founder of a startup in the Tennis space so I can’t help but see in Djokovic so many of the qualities that we admire in founders.
Djokovic beats his opponents mentally. Throw your best at him and you’ll likely find him still standing and ready for more. Yet, I don’t believe he does this with the intention of playing mind games; it’s just a consequence of a deeply held tenacity to win.
Startups are an individual sport (where the atomic unit is a company rather than a person). On the other side of the net is not necessarily a competitor in the literal sense, but all the challenges that come with pursuing your venture. I’m willing to venture that if you were to find Novak in the world of startups (perhaps a future he might choose to pursue), he’d fare pretty well.
I see a lot founders looking up to Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Elon Musk, and the usual suspects as role models, yet the startup world can definitely learn a thing or two from Novak.
Congrats on a 10th Australian Open!