Choke-Ovic: The Rise and Fall Of Novak Djokovic

At the 2007 US Open, Novak Djokovic advanced to the finals to face one of the best players in the world in Roger Federer. Djokovic lost in straight sets (6-7, 6-7, 4-6) but gave Federer quite a battle.

In his next Grand Slam, he wrecked Federer in the semis of the Australian Open, (7-5, 7-6, 6-3) before beating Jo-Wilfried Tsonga for his first ever Grand Slam title.

Since then, he has been on the decline (especially in Grand Slams). You might think, oh, he's only dropped one spot since then, but he just isn't playing that well. 2009 has not been the best year for Djokovic.

Keep this in mind. Djokovic opened up the year with a loss to the greatness that is Ernets Guiblis in the first round of a tournament in Brisbane.

Then there was the tournament in Sidney, where he lost to the previously unknown Jarko Niemman in the semis.

As the defending champ in Australia, he lost to American Andy Roddick, after retiring due to heat illness in the quarter-finals. His clay-court season went well until it came time to face Rafael Nadal.

During the Madrid Masters, it seemed as if Novak was finally going to beat the Spaniard. This, of course, was before he blew three match points and lost the match (6-3, 6-7, 6-7)

Then Djokovic seemed to reach a turning point.

In the French Open, he was a favorite to reach the semis and a few even had him advancing to the final. He cruised through the first two rounds with easy wins over Nicolas Lappenti and Sergiy Stakhovsy.

People thought that the rough clay-court season was going to take a toll on him, and they were right, 100 percent.

In the next match, he lost two consecutive sets to Philip Kohlsreiber, before losing in four.

Next up, in Halle, he reached the finals for his first ATP 1000 win in three years.

At Wimbledon he made the quarterfinals, but faced a tough fight in a few of his games. He played terrible tennis in the quarterfinals and lost a four-set match to Tommy Haas, again.

You might not think this is much of a decline, but it is, and it is only the beginning... Believe me.