For starters, recollections of what Grandfather's demise did to his clay campaign last year cannot escape obvious association with the only difference of it being physical this time. Metaphysical next time?
If Djokovic cannot dispose off an opening rounder, despite him being on some surge of late, because he didn't touch the racket for 12 days, you have to wonder if we are down to the 'flip the switch' mode for Roland Garros with just ONE warm up event left @ Rome. Add to it the very real likelihood of Nadal moving up the improvement chart while ploughing through TWO such events to at best narrow the chasm if not bridge it altogether.
Nadal has so far stayed true to his track record of needing more than average matches to round off into top form with loss to Djokovic @ Monte Carlo as the truest measure of that barometer - in retrospect.
Even though Djokovic is clearly the better player, he STILL needs to be at his very best to beat Nadal - ANYWHERE - leave alone clay.
Djokovic has now rolled an ankle twice in a couple of weeks. Is that a coincidence or a product of the rubber doll moves that the body part in question has had enough of? Most would go for the latter, don't you think? And if that's true when facing relatively benign opponents like Mr. Sharapova, wonder what the 'part' would look like when facing the bull - in full flight - by the time Roland Garros 'rolls' around?
Djokovic's Cheetah-like tendencies are beginning to emerge. His ectomorph body type is NOT built for what Nadal's is. Heck, even Nadal's is breaking down at 26. Djokovic is good for a sprint but a marathon multiplies the toll on the ankle exponentially. Wonder what a match against Nadal resembles most?
This problem may not be too different from Nadal's knees finally giving up. It's just that Djokovic is bound to reach that threshold far sooner and may be with far more severity given his much weaker physical attributes - comparatively. You either have to own the economical game of Federer OR the body of Nadal to be able to push back the inevitable as far down the road as possible.
You can watch Djokovic play just once and safely predict that ankle will give out first just as you can watching Nadal for the knees. Does that mean we are already at the 'knee' junction for Djokovic and another 7-month kindish hiatus is coming up - soon? It's possible - with the same problem Nadal is plagued with: Set in stone style of play. Djokovic has been a pro now for exactly a decade and the spurt in activity in the past two years is starting to take it's toll on the most vulnerable part of the body supporting the abusive and unnatural style of play.
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