Novak Djokovic is winning more admirers by the day after a record-breaking 2023 tennis season as he turned 36 in May this year. Many believe that Djokovic is not only the greatest tennis player of all time but also one of the greatest sportspersons the world has ever seen. One of the attributes that define champions from almost every sport is the reservoirs of mental strength they possess, which talks a lot about their longevity, character and fitness.
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And Djokovic is one player who is renowned for his mental strength in most parts of the world. The interesting part is where to rank the Serb amongst the likes of another tennis great Rafael Nadal, NBA superstar Kobe Bryant, boxing legend Muhammad Ali, soccer great Cristiano Ronaldo, swimming GOAT Michael Phelps and current Indian cricketer Virat Kohli.
There are certain factors to be taken into account such as whether they are playing an individual or team sport, how much the sport is played globally, whether they are playing for a club or country, the demanding nature of the sport, the media scrutiny they have faced and how often they have successfully responded to adverse situations as a sportsperson while playing and not playing.
5. Michael Phelps, the United States’ imperfect swimming GOAT
Michael Phelps took time to realize the value of controlling the mind and how it played a vital role in his professional and personal lives both. Phelps is arguably one of the most controversial sports stars the world has ever seen, having been jailed and banned on separate instances 10 years apart due to drunk driving. He also suffered from depression and ADHD, especially after the 20212 Olympics.
However, his focus was rock-solid in swimming, making him the greatest Olympian of all-time in the world. Phelps has 28 medals just to his name, which no athlete has broken till date. Overall, he has 82 medals across all top competitions, winning events in 161 countries.
His biggest achievement arguably was his record-breaking gold medal spree at the 2008 Olympic Games when Australia’s Ian Thorpe publicly claimed that the American great had no chance of winning 8 golds at a single event. A hurt Phelps took his idol Thorpe’s words to heart by actually placing a paper cutting in his locker and using it as motivation to proving him wrong, and he succeeded eventually.
4. Virat Kohli carries the sporting burden of 1.5 billion people
This name might not be the most popular in the United States perhaps due to cricket not being global yet as a sport. But Virat Kohli has played a huge role in the sport becoming an Olympic one for the 2028 Los Angeles Games. This is largely due to Kohli having 340 million Instagram followers, which is more than LeBron James, Tom Brady and Tiger Woods combined.
In India, Virat Kohli is the epitome of mental strength which he developed apparently from the age of 18 itself after his father passed away while he was playing a cricket match for his team. Kohli decided to play on and did very well in the match. After that, he worked on his physical fitness to reach levels which no sportsperson in India before him achieved. As a result, in his sport, Kohli has broken nearly all individual records and helped India as an international cricket team, break team records in the last decade.
Virat Kohli has made a name for himself for helping Team India win from the most adverse of situations due to his calculative mind and following the basics of his primary skill, batting which is similar like done in baseball. With cricket being India’s No.1 sport, Kohli is their most decorated sportsperson who follows a vegetarian, MSG-free, gluten-free, dairy-free, sugar-free diet religiously to keep himself at a peak level to perform for years very well and exceeding billion expectations.
3. Cristiano Ronaldo changed the face of soccer
Before Cristiano Ronaldo, there were soccer greats such as Pele, Maradona, Ronaldo of Brazil, Zinedine Zidane and David Beckham among others. However, it is fair to say that Cristiano is cut from a different cloth. He came from an extremely modest background in Portugal who was raised by his mother singlehandedly.
Seeing difficulties early in his life made him determined to become the best at what he was best at, playing soccer. His body language on the field is filled with aggression irrespective of the match situation and that has given his team over the years more chances to win than others.
His work ethic and ability to keep a check on his diet is unparalleled perhaps in world sport, as it was once reported that Cristiano has the body of a 20-year-old. The fact that he is one of the richest sportspersons in the world has not changed his attitude towards his sport, family and most of the teams he has played with.
2. Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic took tennis to the next level
Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic formed the greatest-ever tennis rivalry, which began after the mid-2000s and has lasted till date. Both the players have incredible levels of mental strength, although the ways they have achieved that are totally different. Nadal led the way with his Spanish bull-like mentality of using his brute power and stamina to give it his 100 percent towards each point, irrespective of the situation of the game.
In ATP events and Grand Slams alike, Rafael Nadal was seen winning the most unlikeliest of games, sets and matches. Nadal remarkably has hardly lost his concentration and patience on the court, having done difficult drills in training for a large part of his youth and professional career under the guidance of his uncle, Toni Nadal.
Having won Grand Slams since the age of 18 till the age of 35 in an individual sport which is brutal for the body and mind, is a unique feat in itself. More than all this, the 22-time Majors champion has impressed with his ability to bounce back stronger every time from many career-threatening injuries and come out a much better player than before.
On the other hand, Novak Djokovic was a late bloomer who used his weaknesses such as allergies to gluten and dairy, to change his fortunes via his fitness levels. Djokovic has worked like none other when it comes to taking care of his body such as yoga, meditation, mental hack practices and gymnastics and skiing to improve his flexibility. That helps him in his body lasting longer in matches and greater court coverage than others.
Besides that, Novak Djokovic saw extremely tough times in his childhood because of coming from 90s Serbia, which was affected by many wars. At one point, Djokovic’s middle-class family was nearly bankrupt but seeing his conviction and talent, his father loaned money from criminals in Belgrade to continue his training. That is huge motivation till date for the current World No.1 to play the game and fight tough situations such as being banned from tournaments due to his insistence of not getting vaccinated from Covid-19.
1. Muhammad Ali and Kobe Bryant inspired a generation of youngsters to equate sport to life before Novak Djokovic did
Muhammad Ali made boxing what it is today with his phenomenal wins and mindset of digging in deep in a match to unleash his energy when his opponent got exhausted. Ali trained like no other sportsperson of his time and he had no shame in calling himself the best in the world publicly to play mind games with his opponents. His off-the-field stories such as converting himself to Islam, not supporting the United States government in their war-policy in countries such as Vietnam and other ‘rebellious’ views made him the epitome of courage who did not fear losing anything in life.
Another larger-than-life, globally-renowned sportsperson was another late legend, Kobe Bryant. Kobe Bryant’s ‘Mamba Mentality’ is a stuff of folklore and a blueprint for sportspersons in other sports too such as Novak Djokovic to follow by the T. While Michael Jordan changed the face of basketball, Kobe Bryant took it to the next level with his relentlessness on court and unwavering focus on his fitness and training. Bryant also faced controversies in his career admirably well and perhaps better than his other teammates, rivals and predecessors, making him an epitome of mental strength in professional basketball.
