From the courts of the Nitto ATP Finals in Turin, Italy, to the halls of the United States Congress, these have not been the best of times for men and anger management.
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Last man standing -- the liberation of Novak Djokovic
Often in life what appears to be improbable is ultimately inevitable. It’s only later, though, that we understand that what seems to make no sense at first is in the end what was meant to be all along.
For much of the early part of his career, Novak Djokovic — the Celiac-ridden guy from an economically straitened family in war-torn Serbia — was a reliable, color-coordinated number three to the elegant, aloof Roger Federer and his intense, visceral rival, Rafael Nadal. But in becoming the oldest man to win the singles title at the US Open Sunday, Sept. 10, the 36-year-old Djokovic has eclipsed them —tying Australia’s Margaret Court for most Grand Slam singles titles (24); returning to the number one ranking for a record 390th week (altogether that would be seven and a half years, folks); setting a new record for most times winning three Slams in a year (four, in 2011, ’15, ’21 and ’23), having the most ATP Masters 1000 titles (39) — the list goes on.
Read MoreA record US Open concludes
It was a US Open in which youth and age were served as 19-year-old Coco Gauff became the first American teenager since Serena Williams in 1999 to win the women’s singles title, while Novak Djokovic became the oldest singles champion.
Read MoreMedia Day 2023: On the job at the US Open
What was Media Day (Friday, Aug. 25) like for me at the US Open, having not attended for the past three years?
The same thing only different. Everything at the Media Center is digital now. And there seem to be a few new tournament sponsors, including now LVMH-owned Tiffany & Co., maker of the U.S. Men’s and Women’s Singles Championship trophies, and Mount Sinai Health System -- which also has a booth at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Flushing Meadows Corona Park, Queens, where the US Open runs Monday, Aug. 28, through Sunday, Sept. 10.
Read MoreThe improbable triumph of Novak Djokovic
In our endless summer of discontent — the heat, the humidity, the devastating wildfires, the smoke, the wayward storms, the indictments, the losing Yankees, to name but a few — I’d like to take a break and return to a subject that helped inspire my fiction and this blog, tennis and in particular Novak Djokovic, whose career trajectory has a lot to do with two pairs of themes that fascinate me — power and rivalry and context and perception.
Read MoreThe Grand Slam of indictments
If indictments were tennis, former President Donald J. Trump would be Rod Laver.
Rod “the Rocket” was the last man to win all four Slams — the Australian Open, the French Open, Wimbledon and the US Open — in a calendar year. He did it twice — in 1962 and 1969.
Trump, however, won’t be lifting and kissing any trophies. Instead of appearing on the court, he’ll be in the courts of four different venues — New York City, Miami, Washington, D.C. and Atlanta, where he’s been charged with everything from paying hush money to a porn star to obstruction, violation of voting rights and racketeering.
Read MoreThe challenge in letting go
Last summer on a very bad day, I attended the funeral of an affable, older relative whom I hadn’t seen in a long time. Distracted by problems at work, I made a wrong turn and arrived just as the priest was finishing the Gospel that is usually read at funeral Masses. In it, Jesus says, “I am the Resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me. though he were dead, yet shall he live, and whoever so lives and believes in me shall never die” — complementary, mirror-image phrases, like so many throughout the New Testament, that Charles Dickens uses to brilliant effect in the denouement of his French Revolutionary novel of dissipation and redemption, “A Tale of Two Cities.”
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