The seemingly unstoppable Grand Slam summer of Novak Djokovic

Until further notice, the biggest drama in tennis, and perhaps all of sports, is: Will anyone stop Novak Djokovic?

Djokovic is unequivocally the best men’s tennis player in the world, as he’s been for a good long while, and after his triumph in Sunday’s Wimbledon men’s final - which joins his 2021 triumphs at the Australian and French Opens - he’s just one major tournament title (the upcoming U.S. Open) away from completing the pinnacle achievement of the sport, the single-year, calendar “Grand Slam.” Yowza. For additional luster, Djokovic could add a gold medal at the upcoming Summer Olympics in Tokyo, lifting that potential Grand Slam into a “Golden” One.

It’d be an extraordinary accomplishment, either way. Djokovic would be the first men’s player to pull off a Grand Slam since Rod Laver, who first did it as an amateur in 1962, and then as a pro in 1969. Don Budge is the only other men’s player to win all four in a single year. Only Steffi Graf (1988) has managed a “Golden Slam.” Now Nole’s got a genuine shot to do all of it, too.

Really.

Djokovic serves to Matteo Berrettini during their men's singles final match.

Novak Djokovic celebrates winning his men's Singles Final match against Matteo Berrettini.

I’ll say it before you: Nothing is certain in sports. No result can be counted on, not even for a dominant champion extending the prime of his career. Unexpected events happen all the time. I’ll remind you of the time, not long ago, when the unseeded long shot Roberta Vinci derailed Serena Williams’s oh-so-close Grand Slam bid in the semifinals of the 2015 U.S. Open.

No one saw that one coming. Anything can happen in tennis, or any sport. That’s why we watch this stuff.

Still: Do you want to bet against Novak Djokovic right now? I asked this question after his triumph at Roland Garros in June, and I’ll ask it again.

Novak Djokovic celebrates on the court after winning against Italy's Matteo Berrettini.

He seems awfully hard to argue against. On Sunday the 34-year-old Serbian handled Matteo Berrettini of Italy, 6-7 (4), 6-4, 6-4, 6-3, with the same steady virtuosity he used to dispatch the men’s field at the All-England Lawn Tennis Club, collecting the sixth Wimbledon trophy of his career.

I’m not saying this title was easy - winning a major tennis tournament, over the span of two weeks, is never a light lift - but Djokovic never seemed especially threatened. He dropped two sets all tournament . He appeared to enjoy the challenge of working his way back against Berrettini after blowing an early lead and surrendering the opening frame to the talented seventh seed.

Pressure? Nah. Nerves? Forget it. Djokovic isn’t someone who struggles on the knife’s edge; he dances on it.

He remains an astonishingly tough out. Djokovic is a player without a single, significant weakness, and he’s as mentally tough as anyone the sport has ever seen. Now he’s parked alongside Nadal and Roger Federer in the Very Astonishing 20 Majors Club.

Novak Djokovic of Serbia poses with the winners trophy after winning his men's Singles Final match against Matteo Berrettini of Italy.

Think about that for a second. Only three men’s players have ever collected 20 singles majors, and all three of them are concurrent rivals, actively in the game.

Though Djokovic shined, this was not an auspicious Wimbledon for the Big Three. A weary Nadal skipped it altogether, Instagramming the sunset from his Mallorca HQ. Federer returned at age 39, amid a scattered season following knee surgery, and he managed to get to the quarters before getting broomed out in straight sets by Poland’s Hubert Hurkacz, a loss that included a 6-0 bagel served in the final frame.

Oof. Federer had never fallen in straight sets in 19 years at Wimbledon, and while he has been skillful at deflecting speculation about his tennis future, it sounds as if he’s at least considering when he will walk away.

“Of course I would like to play it again,” Federer said of Wimbledon. “But at my age, you’re just never sure what’s around the corner.” What’s around the corner for Djokovic, meanwhile, seems to be more of this. He continues to play at an extremely high level -- that French Open run, with a toppling of Nadal and a clawback from two sets to Stefanos Tsitsipas, was an all-timer. He’s finding little trouble with the next-generation wave of twenty somethings. Twenty majors feels like a pit stop on the way to a larger number.

Italy's Matteo Berrettini returns against Serbia's Novak Djokovic during their men's singles final match.

How far could Djokovic take it? How much distance could he put between himself and Federer and Nadal? Tennis is obsessed with making declarations of all-time greatness, which tend to shortchange older greats like Laver, but with lifetime winning margins over both Federer and Nadal, Djokovic is making a case that he stands alone.

And his historic career remains a work in progress. Now it’s on to Tokyo, with its hard courts and best-of-3 sets, the latter a variable that offers Djokovic’s competition a better chance than trying to outlast him in a best-of-5. Djokovic’s Olympic resume is thinner than his majors collection - his sole medal is a bronze he won in 2008, early in his career - but he says he’s “very motivated” for these Games.

Uh-oh. That’s what the men’s Olympic field has to be thinking. I’ll ask it one more time: Do you want to bet against Novak Djokovic right now? Yeah, me neither. This is his sport, his moment, and the opportunity of a lifetime.

The Wall Street Journal