Novak Djokovic, MS Dhoni and the painful April of watching the unbreakable legends break

Novak Djokovic can be advised to follow MS Dhoni's IPL season. If the Serb finds cricket boring, he can just watch his four-ball inning — calling it a painful-to-watch outing would be more apt — against Punjab Kings in CSK’s last game.Dhoni, 43, has looked in shape, sufficiently beefed up.

- GNS News Agency

But he couldn't middle many balls. When he did, he failed to clear the ropes, like he did once upon a time. CSK’s fortunes would get impacted. The IPL final is still about a month away but the multiple champions are out of contention. Dhoni failed when his team wanted him to succeed the most. And in his and CSK’s failure, is a lesson for Djokovic — Form wasn't on tap, it doesn't flow by just turning the knob.

Few days back, towards the end of last month, Djokovic, 37, had lost to World No.44 Matteo Arnaldi in straight sets. It was a meek surrender. Acknowledging his fall but not sure if it was time to call it quits, Djokovic spoke about a “new reality”. He confessed how his goal these days was to win a few rounds and not the tournament.But like all sporting greats, in the business of performing miracles all their lives, he wasn’t writing himself off at Grand Slams. “Obviously Grand Slams are the most important tournaments for me. Which doesn’t mean that | don’t want to win here, of course | wanted to, but Grand Slams are where | really want to play the best tennis,” he said. That was the catch. Djokovic believed that “best tennis” was on tap and he was capable of turning the knob four times a year.