I just watched a highlight reel and I feel I can actually comment on the match now without being affected by the drama and the tension.
Novak's main issue in the slams during the last couple of years is that he expects too much of himself. Everytime he loses an important point (or especially a set), he gets angry and very down on himself, and that carries over to the next point(s) as well. In the first game of the third set, he held but after holding he seemed to berate himself quite a bit.
When he wins, he celebrates but he has this righteous anger as if that is the bare minimum he expects and its nothing special. Putting that sort of mental pressure on yourself has to be draining. Winning cannot be a chore or a duty.
To be fair, all the great champions get annoyed and show frustration after losing points, but Rafa and Roger don't shout at themselves everytime the opponent hits a winner (at least not in every match they play).
This in my opinion is something Djokovic did not do in 2011, when he would accept opponent winners and his own bad points and mistakes and just carry on playing. He seems to be a little too intense on court nowadays. I still remember the 4th set of the USO 2013 final when he literally looked crushed after each point he lost.
No one is going to regularly win slams without dropping sets or having tough matches along the way. And getting angry with yourself for dropping one set increases the pressure, which then leads to further nerves and poor play. I felt Stan's best patch of the match was the second set, which he was able to take with his aggressive play. After that, he played well, but he needed Novak to be off the boil in the 3rd.
Just my opinion though.
