Welcome to Tennis Elbow, the column that looks back on the week that was in the world of tennis. This week, Charles Blouin-Gascon recaps the first week of the 2016 French Open and looks ahead at the second.
At long last, Paris smiled back to Novak Djokovic.
If Novak wins (has 2 sets to 1 lead) it will be his 28th consecutive Major match victory – longest streak in history pic.twitter.com/xwaqF95Q7w
— Roland Garros (@rolandgarros) June 5, 2016
After quite a number of failures at the French Open, the Serb is finally a career Grand Slam champion after beating Andy Murray in the Roland Garros final by the score of 3-6, 6-1, 6-2 and 6-4. “It’s a thrilling moment,” Djokovic said after the win. “One of the most beautiful I have had in my career…”
The win makes him the first man since Rod Laver in 1969 to hold all four Grand Slam titles at once, as well as the eight man in history to win a title of each of the four majors and complete the career Grand Slam. This win feels like a big deal, because it is.
This wasn’t lost on the No. 1 player in the world. “It’s incredibly flattering to know that Rod Laver is the last one that managed to do that. There are not many words that can describe it. It’s one of the ultimate challenges that you have as a tennis player. I’m very proud and very thrilled,” he said. “It’s hard for me to reflect on what has happened before and what’s going to happen after. I’m just so overwhelmed with having this trophy next to me that I’m just trying to enjoy this moment.”
Murray, in defeat, also echoed many of the same sentiments. “This is Novak’s day,” he said. “Winning all four Grand Slams at once is a great achievement. This is something that is so rare in tennis. What he’s achieved the last 12 months is phenomenal. I’m proud to be part of it today.”
In our era of #hottakes and #instantanalysis, the reflex would be to look to understand this win in its broader context and to give to Djokovic the place in tennis lore that is rightfully his after such a win.
But that’s not what we’ll do; we’ll keep the broader context for another day because ours is also an era of social media, GIFs, videos, tweets and photos. So we’ll turn to Twitter to examine Djokovic’s first career French Open title under a few different lights—because there’s really a tweet for any- and everything.
See, here are tweets for the actual match itself, and Djokovic’s reactions to his win.
It doesn't get much better than that. Game, set, match, @DjokerNole. WATCH: https://t.co/gakiDv0jYH #RG16 https://t.co/GqMYRUVxKX
— Roland Garros (@rolandgarros) June 5, 2016
Winner. pic.twitter.com/s8pJbS5M4N
— Joe Fleming (@ByJoeFleming) June 5, 2016
.@DjokerNole has a message for his fans. (And for you, #NoleFam.) #RG16 pic.twitter.com/pzLL3QGzrV
— Roland Garros (@rolandgarros) June 5, 2016
"I'm just so overwhelmed with having this trophy next to me that I'm just trying to enjoy this moment." #RG16 pic.twitter.com/DrV5eAL8EH
— Roland Garros (@rolandgarros) June 5, 2016
Djokovic the magnificent. And I hope the start of him being widely acknowledged as a people's champ. pic.twitter.com/XrDQmuyCso
— Jason Gay (@jasongay) June 5, 2016
There are also good tweets that show us just how wonderful and dominant Djokovic was against Murray, and has been over the past year.
Djokovic in last 3 sets vs. Murray:
33 winners
24 unforced errors
Won 22 of 26 points at net— Carl Bialik (@CarlBialik) June 5, 2016
Djokovic sets lost in 28-match Slam win streak
6 in 4 4th-rounders
3 in 3 matches vs. Federer
2 in other 21 matcheshttps://t.co/Iz6x3QXmPl— Carl Bialik (@CarlBialik) June 5, 2016
Novak Djokovic's results in the last 22 big (Slams, Masters, tour finals) events he has played:
21 finals
17 titles https://t.co/sytybZqOUZ— Carl Bialik (@CarlBialik) June 5, 2016
Djokovic is close now, owning 12 Slams behind Nadal & Pete Sampras, 14 Slams. But getting to Federer at 17 majors? Still a long way 2 go
— Matt Cronin (@TennisReporters) June 5, 2016
But of course, you’ve been following tennis for quite some time now and already knew this, so you think the above tweets are a little boring. In which case you are in luck, because Twitter is also great for illustrating with images or emoji what we used to have to write in words.
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…2015-16 Slams, Masters, WTFs:
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Novak Djokovic career Slams, Masters, WTFs:
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In 2016, social media are also excellent for putting things into their broader and historical context—and Twitter, after Djokovic’s win, was no exception.
"At the beginning I was not glad to be part of their era but later on I realized that everything happens for a reason" – Djoko on Fed/Nadal
— Christopher Clarey (@christophclarey) June 5, 2016
Maybe most exciting part of Djokovic title? We have Calendar Slam potential on men's side for first time since 1992, when Courier won AO+RG.
— Ben Rothenberg (@BenRothenberg) June 5, 2016
Djokovic's edges as he chases records:
1. He's best. By far. Period.
2. Federer/Nadal fading
3. No younger rivalshttps://t.co/njLwRbbZm7— Carl Bialik (@CarlBialik) June 5, 2016
Oh but right, we weren’t supposed to discuss the historical significance of this win; let’s keep that for another day.
See? There’s plenty to see and examine on Twitter and for the most part, we’ve stayed in the moment; we didn’t want to reflect on this landmark win for the Djoker, so we didn’t. We simply wanted to celebrate the win, and so we did.
Enjoy this French Open win, Novak. You’ve earned it.
Follow Charles Blouin-Gascon on Twitter @RealCBG
