The pressure is on Novak Djokovic and Mac Jones this weekend, and their response should offer us dramatic sports theater .
Djokovic, the best tennis player in the world, is two victories shy of becoming only the third man, and the first in 52 years, to win the Australian, French and U.S. Opens and Wimbledon in the same year. The elusive Grand Slam.
Only American Don Budge in 1938 and Australian Rod Laver in 1962 and 1969 have done it for the men and American Maureen Brinker Connolly in 1953, Australian Margaret Court in 1970 and German Steffi Graf in 1988 for the women.
If Djokovic succeeds, he will also have his 21st major championship, breaking a tie with his contemporary rivals Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal. He will become the greatest tennis champion of all time.
But Djokovic is not there yet. The top seed at the Open will play fourth-seeded Alexander Zverev of Germany Friday night in the semifinals. A victory will put him in the championship match Sunday afternoon against either No. 2 Daniel Medvedev of Russia or No. 12 Felix Auger-Aliassime of Canada.
Is Djokovic, 34, the greatest player of all time? Could be. He holds the record of 337 weeks at No. 1. Think about that. He has spent 6 1/2 years of his career atop the men’s rankings. He has won the majors on grass, clay and hard courts under broiling sun and bright lights. He is fit and shows no sign of slowing down. He can shrug off a first-set loss and dominate, as he did in the quarterfinals against Italian Matteo Berrettini Wednesday night.
As great as he is, Djokovic is not invincible. Zverev beat him in the semifinals at the Tokyo Olympics in July, and Pablo Carreno Busta of Spain won their bronze medal match in three sets.
Win Friday night and Sunday, and Djokovic can ensure that few tennis fans will remember his Olympic failure in the summer of ’21.
At Gillette Stadium in Foxboro on Sunday against the Dolphins, Jones will face a different kind of pressure. He will become the first rookie to start at quarterback for the New England Patriots since Drew Bledsoe in 1993. The Pats secured Jones’s place in New England sports history on Aug. 24 when they cut veteran Cam Newton while trimming their roster to 53, the NFL maximum.
Jones led Alabama to the national championship last season. The Patriots, seeking an alternative to Newton and their quarterback of the future, drafted him with the 15th pick last spring. He impressed the coaching staff and his teammates during off-season training and meetings and continued to impress during pre-season camp.
He spent hours studying offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels’s system and has shown he can run the Patriots offense. When Newton “misunderstood” the NFL’s COVID-19 policies and had to sit for five days, Jones had some of his best practice sessions.
Jones is confident and from all reports carries himself with a swagger beyond his rookie status. In recent days he has said he expected to start when he joined the Patriots, and teammates have praised his ability to take charge.
Jones may have beaten Newton, a dismal failure in 2020, for the QB job, but he is really following in the footsteps and playing in the shadow of Tom Brady. Media and fans will compare him to TB12 all season long, pressure equal to that of any edge rusher in the AFC. How Jones handles both will help determine whether he succeeds.
