While Federer is trying to squeeze in that last one or two more majors and hoping to get the number one ranking back one last time, while Nadal is literally trying to keep his body in one piece and get back to his A-game just in time for the clay court season; and while Murray is being Murray and not doing any different than what he was doing 5 years ago, Djokovic has been taking leaps of greatness to tell the world to start taking him seriously. He’s heading towards the history books and he is going at a quick pace. He’s no more just that jolly impersonator who made it to the latter stages of majors and caused upsets. He is the dominant force in tennis right now. We, in fact, are living in the era of Novak Djokovic.

There is no doubt that he is the best player in the world right now and has been for the past couple of years. His dominance right now is very similar to Federer’s a decade ago. Although he is not winning majors at the same rate as Fed was, he is losing only less than ten matches a year, with a winning percentage of more than 88 percent. Federer in 2004, 2005 and 2006 was winning three majors a year with more than 93 percent of his matches and with much more grace and beauty than Djokovic. Nonetheless, it is Djokovic’s time now.

The amazing part is that Djokovic isn’t nearly as talented as Roger, not nearly as unique and unbearable an opponent as Nadal, doesn’t have the biggest serve in the game, or the best forehand, futures’ players have better volleys than him, yet he rules the world. He is almost unbeatable.

It is his relentless consistency, impeccable movement, indestructible defence and the knack of raising his level on big points and important stages of the match that has kept him on top of the game. It is being consistent at doing all of these things on a consistent basis that takes you high and shatters your opponents’ beliefs. It is doing the basics right at a very high and almost perfect level day in day out.

He’s extremely flexible, which is genetic, as well as something he has worked on since he was a child. He wasn’t the strongest kid, so his coach paid extra attention to his flexibility and mobility to cover up for his lack of strength. He stuck with it and today he is the best mover in the sport. He does with his body what Santoro did with his racket. He gets to balls that players 10 years ago didn’t even move for. He can do the splits and retrieve the ball by the sideline umpire’s chair and recover back to the middle before the opponent has hit the ball. He can hit return winners from outside the doubles alley with his reach. He is like Dhalsim from the ‘Street Fighter’. His arms and legs extend further than they’re supposed to and they seem to keep getting longer.

Federer had the better of him in 2014, winning three of the five meetings, but he didn’t see the same success as Djokovic, overall. And that happens to the guy at the top: he becomes the bulls eye that everyone else wants to hit. The rivals start to alter and design their games to defeat the best. Because, to be the best, you have to beat the best, right? Not necessarily. Just as we saw, Djokovic lost to Federer more than he beat him in 2014 but was still easily the best player of the year. Djokovic made $14.2 million, $5 million more than Roger did last year and won seven titles compared to Roger’s five. But what Federer did, and what his long term goal has been, was to find a game that hurt Djokovic because he is the man to beat, he is the one sitting head and shoulders above everyone else. Using his talent and the diverse arsenal he has, Roger derived a game plan to attack Djokovic by coming to the net behind his precise serve and his suave backhand slice. It worked. Fed has won more against him recently. He’s made Djokovic uncomfortable. But not many others can do that. So in the future, besides Roger, there is no one hurting Djokovic much.

From the looks of it, Novak is getting better and sharper mentally. His best tennis is still ahead of him and that’s a worry for the rest of the players. He nullifies the serve of the big servers and out rallies all the baseliners. There are simply very few ways to beat him. Roger has found one but he is the only one capable of it. Don’t know what it will take to beat Djokovic or who will stop him, but as of now, he could very well be the most complete, and the best baseliner we have ever seen.