‘Bit of a circus’ – Roger Federer rival contrasts Swiss’ changes to Novak Djokovic’s new approach
Novak Djokovic has been making adjustments to his game for several years, but the Serbian has incorporated nothing as dramatic as Roger Federer’s SABR (Sneak attack by Roger).
That is according to Andy Roddick, who has outlined how the 24-time major winner has tweaked his stock offering when Father Time has finally started to catch up with him.
The former world No 1, who had a 21-3 losing record to Federer, explained how the 39-year-old has increased his second serve speed; he now tries to shorten points, whereas before he would happily extend them, and Djokovic approaches the net more, too.
All of this is to make up for him being a step slower than in the past and not having the endurance he once possessed. Rewind to 2015, and a 28-year-old Djokovic was faced with Federer’s SABR at the Cincinnati Masters.
This involved the Swiss essentially half-volleying the Serb’s serve and charging towards the service box. It worked a treat in the final in Cincinnati that year but a few weeks later, Djokovic was wise to it as he beat his great rival in four sets in the US Open final.
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Roddick described Federer’s SABR as a “circus”, partly because he used it so sparingly after those two 2015 tournaments. Djokovic, though, is continually looking for ways to give himself an edge as he approaches 40.
On the latest episode of Served, the American said, “SABR was a bit of a circus. Like Roger would do it and it was fun, but did we ever see him really do it more than like one time? Every third set, it wasn’t something that you could go to all the time. Novak has already made adjustments.
“The second serve goes bigger, goes into the body. He doesn’t defend as well out of the corners. You might see him making more errors. That’s because he is trying to get on the front foot more often.
“It’s not as nuts as like SABR, where we’re all just waiting for him to be like, I mean, basically Roger is playing a game of horse (shooting a basketball from different locations on the court), but during matches, ‘Um, can I pull this off? Yeah. I mean, he’s certain.
“Novak serves and volleys way more than he used to. Every player who was fantastic at defence, you lose a step. How do you make up for that? It’s by getting on the front foot and playing less defence. How has that done? It’s by hitting bigger from the baseline.”
Roddick did point out that in the final set tiebreak in Djokovic’s quarter-final win over Felix Auger-Aliassime, he rolled back the years from a defensive standpoint. But that is not something he can do nearly as much.
Roddick continued, “I think we’ve seen Novak do that. I don’t know that you see him as often settle in and defence [it] up. Now he still does it when he needs to. The fifth set buster against Felix Auger-Aliassime [at Wimbledon], he went vintage, but can his body take that defensive load for five sets? I think the answer is no.
“Now it’s not as like obvious as SABR or Roger hitting one handed backhand and return winners with a bigger frame or something to talk about. But he’s already made a bunch of adjustments.”
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