INSIDE TENNIS: The victory that would go away Novak Djokovic with a legacy extra elementary and lasting than Roger Federer’s or Rafael Nadal’s

In the lobby of a Manhattan hotel during last year’s US Open I got talking to a prominent tennis agent about the Big Three and legacy; about what Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic will leave behind them in the game other than memories of their greatness.

I was reminded of that conversation after seeing three photographs within a few hours of each other on Sunday evening.

One was of Federer pouring chocolate to mark the opening of a new flagship Lindt store in Piccadilly Circus. Then there was a picture of a smiling Rafael Nadal next to Alexandra Eala at her 2023 graduation ceremony from his academy, which emerged after the Filipino’s amazing run in Miami. And finally there was a tweet from Donald Trump‘s health chief and notorious vaccine critic Robert F Kennedy Jnr, a picture of himself on court with Djokovic.

It was quite the triptych and served to highlight the perception of these three men, two retired and one in the twilight of his career: good old Rafa inspiring the kids, doesn’t Roger look nice in a suit and… a maelstrom of both adoration and abhorrence towards Novak.

Of course, Djokovic can play tennis with whoever he pleases. Rory McIlroy has golfed with Donald Trump, that doesn’t mean he supports the annexation of Greenland. But this was a Covid vaccine refusenik with his arm round the shoulder of one of the most notorious vaccine conspiracy theorists. Kennedy has continued to propagate the scientifically disproven link between vaccines and autism. In 2019 a measles outbreak in Samoa killed 83 people, mostly children, because of a huge drop in vaccination rate which was partly attributed to Kennedy’s misinformation.

To me the most offensive aspect of the photo was Kennedy’s choice of what looked to be hiking shoes to play tennis but there is no doubt this is an emotive area and the reaction to the picture was a reminder of how controversial a figure Djokovic can be.

Roger Federer marked the opening of a new flagship Lindt store in Piccadilly Circus by pouring chocolate for the camera

At the same time, an image of Rafael Nadal with Miami Open rising star Alexandra Eala when she graduated from his academy in 2023 circulated

So what will be the legacies of these three titans of the sport? Federer remains the sponsors’ dream, the squeaky-clean businessman. His big tennis idea is the Laver Cup, which he co-created and co-owns, but that is yet to become the sport’s answer to the Ryder Cup, as was hoped.

Nadal’s eponymous academy in his home of Manacor has spawned four others around the world. A fifth is planned in Marbella and a sixth in Saudi Arabia.

That last is the closest the Spaniard has flown to controversy, as it is part of his £600million role as a tennis ambassador to Saudi, a country with an abysmal human rights record.

But of the three men Djokovic is by far the most polarising. Whatever you say about the 37-year-old he is not one to choose an easy life. He is happy to sacrifice, or at least gamble, public perception at the altar of personal values.

Getting inoculated against Covid was the easy – and, most would say, sensible – choice and the same could be said about turning down a knock up with a Trump-aligned conspiracy theorist.

In the latter years of his career he could have progressed towards retirement and sat on his millions. Instead he co-founded the PTPA and that brings us to the filing in a New York court of Vasek Pospisil et al vs the ATP et al. Or, put another way, Novak vs tennis.

Djokovic did not put his name among the plaintiffs and has demurred at some of the more bombastic language in the lawsuit but fundamentally he supports it. He feels tennis players are underpaid and powerless in the face of the entangled power structure of the governing bodies or, as the suit calls them, the cartel.

The outcome of this lawsuit could define the Djokovic legacy for future generations of tennis fans. The Laver Cup has been a decent watch and the Nadal academies are producing some good players but neither venture has shifted the fabric of the sport.

Plenty could go wrong for the PTPA. Defeat in court would be ruinous to their reputation and even success, if some of the more extreme free-market-economics clauses come to pass, could lead to a fracturing of the tours or even a LIV style breakaway.

But if the lawsuit does force the big guns to the table and some of the sport’s many problems are fixed, if the arcane workings of the tours are untangled to allow enterprise to breathe, if players are given true power to negotiate for their interests, if the money floods in and the tide raises all boats, what then?

Then, Djokovic’s willingness to get his hands dirtier than Federer and Nadal ever did could leave him with a tennis legacy more fundamental and lasting than either of his old rivals.

Maybe, in spite of the Covid years and that snapshot with RFK and his hiking shoes, Djokovic will finally feel the love from the tennis world.

Alcaraz’s struggles

What’s going on with Carlos Alcaraz? He lost to David Goffin in his first match in Miami and looked all at sea against Jack Draper in Indian Wells. Since winning the 2022 US Open his win rate on hard courts is 76 per cent, compared to 88 per cent for Jannik Sinner and 85 per cent for Novak Djokovic.

Despite the much-publicised tweak to his service action during the off-season that still looks an issue. His kicker second serve is effective on clay and grass but attackable on hard.

He also added five grams of weight to his racket in the off-season, could there be some teething problems with that?

But the main issue is he simply looks lost on court, bereft of a tactical plan. He has always been more natural entertainer than natural matchplayer but the expectation was that with age would come a greater appreciation of when and how to utilise his kaleidoscopic array of shots.

If anything he has gone backwards and that is a reminder that improvement is not always linear for young prodigies.

He is still only 21 and we are not at crisis point yet but how will he get himself out of this funk? It may be that the transition to clay will get him back on track but it could be time for him to shake up his coaching box.

Alcaraz has had Juan Carlos Ferrero as his mentor since the age of 15 and it will take a lot to break that thread. But adding another voice to the team in addition to Ferrero would be a smart move.

We talk plenty in Britain about how Emma Raducanu has changed her coaches over the years and bemoan her lack of continuity but the reverse can also be a fault: sticking with the same formula when the product is declining.

One to watch: Alexandra Eala

The 19-year-old Filipino has been the story of the Miami Open so far. She left home at the age of 13 to live and train at the Rafael Nadal academy in Mallorca. After winning the 2022 junior US Open her transition to the senior ranks has not been smooth but things are clicking in Miami.

She has beaten two Grand Slam champions in Jelena Ostapenko and Madison Keys and on Wednesday takes on a third, Iga Swiatek – the woman who was by her side when she graduated from the Nadal academy in 2023.

Eala plays very similarly to fellow lefty Leylah Fernandez, just with a dose more natural power. She looks an incredible competitor and will be an exciting watch over the next few years.