Novak Djokovic is a great tennis champion: gracious, personable, funny, polyglot. Exuberant in victory (ripped shirt, bared torso), he is never pouty in defeat. After a loss he is much more Kiplingesque than Roger Federer, despite the latter’s numerous “sportsman” awards.
I just wish I liked watching Djokovic play.
Off the court he’s a prince, on it a robot. An extremely elastic robot, but still a robot. This is the curse of many two-handed backhanders (the reckless Nadal being an exception). But the rest of them just look so mechanical. Murray comes across as mechanical and dense, but what do you expect from a man who claims he never reads? If tennis players received points, like figure skaters, for degree of difficulty, execution, and overall grace, Federer would still be an untouchable #1.
