Baseline Awards of 2019: Strongest model of consistency

Last year, Novak Djokovic made a triumphant return to the top of the men’s game, overcoming an elbow injury that had hindered his results to finish 2018 as No. 1 in the world.

While he didn’t finish in that spot this year, the No. 2-ranked Serb once again posted results that measured up to his lofty standards.

Djokovic opened up 2019 with a surprise loss to Roberto Bautista Agut in the semifinals in Qatar, but rebounded from that to triumph at the Australian Open, his seventh title in Melbourne and first since 2016.

Surprisingly, the Masters 1000 events in Indian Wells, Calif., and Miami didn’t go as planned for the prolific title-winner at those tournaments as he experienced a pair of early-round upsets. When the tour turned to the clay-court portion of the calendar, his level of play picked back up with a semifinal run at the French Open, a runner-up appearance in Rome and the title in Madrid.

Djokovic’s most impressive feat, though, came on the grass courts of the All England Club. The defending Wimbledon champion only dropped one set through his first five matches, then beat Bautista Agut for the first time in their three matches of the year in four sets. That set up a dream final against the seven-time titleholder Roger Federer in a battle of the 1 vs. 2 seeds—and the expectations for a high-quality match were definitely met.

Djokovic won two of the first three sets in tiebreaks, before Federer took the fourth to level the match. The world No. 1 fought off two championship points en route to a 12-12 fifth set tie. With the new rules of a tiebreak being played at this stage, it was Djokovic who took the mini-frame 7-3 to clinch his second major of the year.

The summer hard-court season ended in disappointment as Djokovic had to retire in the fourth round of the US Open due to injury. He bounced back in Asia, though, by winning the Japan Open in his first appearance at the tournament, then closed out the regular season with another Masters 1000 title, this time in Paris.

Ranked No. 1 for most of the year, he ceded that spot to Rafael Nadal, but with multiple Slams and Masters titles to add to his resume, it was another consistent season for one of the game’s all-time greats.

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