‘I try to impersonate Iron Man’: The piece of tech that assisted Novak Djokovic in winning Grand Slam No. 23

Novak Djokovic set the record for most grand slam wins by a male tennis player on Sunday, as his victory over world No. 4 Casper Ruud at Roland Garros took him to a total of 23 slam titles, one clear of his great rival Rafael Nadal. Djokovic was thoroughly dominant across the entire tournament, never looking in danger of losing a match at any stage, and never even having to play a fifth set.

The Serbian, however, credited his physical fitness and endurance over the course of the fortnight to a strange source. In earlier rounds of the tournament, cameras had captured images of a small chip of metal taped to Djokovic’s chest, which caused speculation about its role. Djokovic has gone on to reveal its role and its nature, in what seems to be a slightly bizarre utilization of technology.

Djokovic revealed that it was a metal patch manufactured by a company called Tao Technologies, and called it the biggest key to his success, proclaiming after the final that “My team delivers an incredibly efficient nanotechnology to help me deliver my best on the court, so that’s the biggest secret of my career. If it wasn’t for that, I probably wouldn’t be sitting here,” he said.

The website of the proprietor, Tao Technologies, claims that the metal patch “nourishes the body with wavelengths of therapeutic light, without side effects or the release of any chemicals.” Djokovic has in the past come under criticism for buying into pseudoscientific methods to earn extra inches, verging on dangerous territory such as his widely-publicized refusal to get the Covid-19 vaccine, as well as conspiratorial talk about 5G waves affecting health and performance. His critics were quick to jump on this and point out how strange a concept it sounded, but Djokovic merely joked in the press conference that, “When I was a kid I liked Iron Man a lot, so I try to impersonate Iron Man.”

Even at 36, Djokovic looked like the fittest player all tournament, a factor which proved to be true when he outlasted US Open champion Carlos Alcaraz, 16 years his junior and an athletic marvel capable of combining immense power with otherworldly speed across the court. Djokovic underwent a wholesale change in his diet and physical conditioning in 2010 after discovering an allergy to gluten, and has often credited that change as what supercharged his development into one of the finest tennis players in the world. He had only won one grand slam before that change, but his 2011 season would reward him, and is considered amongst the finest individual sporting seasons of all time.

Whatever the case might be with the nanotechnology chip, which Tao Technologies are trying to register with the American governmental Food and Drug Administration, Djokovic’s quality on the tennis court in recent weeks has been beyond questioning. Having returned to world No. 1, Djokovic will try to continue his strong streak of fitness with a 24th grand slam title at Wimbledon, which would be his fifth straight trophy at tennis’s most famous tournament.