Nole ! Nole !

[marmar]

KEY BISCAYNE, Fla. -- While most of his colleagues were enjoying some down time at their homes scattered around the world last December, Novak Djokovic was still grinding.

He led Serbia to its first Davis Cup championship, over France, but after taking only six days off he began training for the 2011 season. Djokovic came flying out of the box, won the Australian Open and stayed white-hot for three months, running off to one of the greatest starts in tennis history -- he carried a 23-0 record all the way into the Sony Ericsson Open final.

On Sunday a weary Djokovic finally, perhaps inevitably, crashed and burned. In the first set, that is. Breathing heavily, the cumulative exhaustion evident in his body language, the 23-year-old was knocked around by the world No. 1, Rafael Nadal, holder of three of the four majors.

But then the player whose heart, when strained by adverse conditions, had been questioned for years, slowly, slowly wore down the toughest player we have seen in generations. Djokovic somehow summoned the will -- and the breathtaking skill -- to beat Nadal 4-6, 6-3, 7-6 (4). ................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://sports.espn.go.com/sports/tennis/columns/story?columnist=garber_greg&id=6283577

[bigwillq]

1. Great match.

Caught the third set.

[dhill926]

2. yep.....

on quite the roll, just playing great. Was at Indian Wells for his matches against Roger and Rafa. Men's tennis is in a very happy place right now.......esp. with Del Potro on the mend.