
Some sporting stories are written on the field. They are decided by a single goal, a split second, or one decisive point. Others, far rarer, seem to have been written long before the opening whistle ever blew.

Some athletes grow on applause. And then there are those rare ones who do not depend on it. Novak Djokovic belongs to that second, almost forgotten kind, the kind that no longer seeks validation from the outside because it has long since found balance within.