Christopher Clarey: End of the Djok?

It was certainly possible to see trouble ahead for Novak Djokovic based on all the dents in his armour from 2016. But it would have taken a creative mind to see the latest knockout blow coming from 117th-ranked Denis Istomin of Uzbekistan in the second round of the Australian Open on Thursday.

When Istomin was asked how he would have responded if someone suggested such a thing a couple of weeks ago, he answered, “I would have said, ‘Are you crazy, or what?’”

But tennis is a game of centimetres — inches, if you’re stuck in the nonmetric world — and if you have doubts, consider that Istomin, 30, who is coached by his mother, very nearly did not make it here at all. His career was nearly derailed by a car accident in his teenage years, and he earned his wild card in the main draw in Melbourne this year only after saving four match points in the semifinals of the Asia-Pacific wild-card playoff in December.

Tennis is a game of confidence, too, and the second-seeded Djokovic, despite hints to the contrary as he won his first tournament of the year, is clearly not the same suffocating, pressure-proof force of personality that he has been at other triumphant phases of his career.

“I didn’t recognise him today, his mentality,” his former coach Boris Becker said when we spoke late Thursday night.

Istomin became the latest big-hitting veteran to reap the benefits, although he still had to come up with what looked like the match of his life to manage it, delivering first serves and chutzpah when he needed them most to prevail against Djokovic, 7-6 (8), 5-7, 2-6, 7-6 (5), 6-4.

It could not have hurt to know that other unlikely figures — like the American Sam Querrey, in the third round at Wimbledon last year — had done the same under pressure against Djokovic recently.

Still, this was Djokovic’s earliest defeat at a Grand Slam tournament since he lost to Marat Safin in the second round of Wimbledon in 2008. It was his earliest loss in Melbourne since a first-round defeat in 2006, at age 18.

Laver Arena has been Djokovic Arena, too. He has won six of his 12 major singles titles here, and he was the two-time defending champion.

But he has now left a mark of another sort by being on the bitter end of one of the Australian Open’s biggest upsets.

It was the latest blow to his battered aura of invincibility. Last June, after winning the French Open for the first time, Djokovic held all four Grand Slam singles titles. But he has not won a major since and has surrendered the No. 1 ranking to Andy Murray, who lost to Djokovic two weeks ago in the final in Doha, Qatar, but is now a solid favourite to win his first Australian Open.

In the bottom half of the draw, where Djokovic no longer prowls, opportunity knocks and may not have to knock for long.

“It’s a big door open now,” Becker said. “We talked about the next generation for a long time, and now is the time for these 19-, 20-, 21-year-olds to go through the door. When the top dog is struggling a bit — and no disrespect to Andy, but Novak was the top dog — the way was blocked. But now it’s a shift.”

Becker split with Djokovic at the end of last year and is in Melbourne doing commentary for German Eurosport. He said one of the main reasons he decided to leave Djokovic's team was because he felt the Serb was no longer making tennis as high a priority. Becker declined to comment on whether the increasingly public role taken on by Pepe Imaz, a former Spanish touring pro who has become Djokovic’s spiritual adviser, was a factor. (Imaz is not in Melbourne.) Djokovic also made cryptic references to “private issues” at the US Open last fall.

“Obviously the second half of last year, there was a different priority,” Becker said. “Novak was the first one to admit that, and I think that was the main reason for me to stop this because I thought my job isn’t that important anymore obviously. Having watched the match today, I felt he tried and he played five sets and four and a half hours, but I didn’t see the intensity, didn’t see the absolute will to win, didn’t see him mentally going crazy.

“He always was very nonchalant about it, and that is not the Novak that I know. I’d rather see him break a racket or pull the shirt or something, for him to get emotional. I thought it was very even keel the whole match through, and that was unusual, and I don't know what to make of that.”

© 2017 The New York Times News Service