Djokovic's big test
We’ve all been there: that sweaty-palmed moment when, as a less-than-academic pupil, we had to hand over out report cards to our parents. And we knew what was coming: grounded for a month, pocket money/allowance docked (it was pocket money in my day – we had pockets, lots of them, and the cash, not much of it, came in coin form) and the most almighty dressing-down.
Funnily enough, I ran across some of my old report cards recently and the mere sight of them produced that vague feeling of nausea I thought I had forgotten forever. The best offering was “could do better”, the standard was “shows absolutely no aptitude for this subject” … and then there was my PE report. With the hand-eye coordination of a goldfish in mittens, I carried a laminated sick note to get me out of as many sessions as possible. Ritual humiliation was not my hobby of choice.
Which brings us, eventually, to Novak Djokovic. Imagine what it must have been like for him for the past couple of years. Ever since he won the French Open in 2016, completing the non-calendar Grand Slam and completing his personal collection of major trophies, he has not been quite the same.
It came as no surprise that he needed a few months to process what he had just achieved (it is hard to play top-notch tennis when your head is still spinning), nor that the sheer lung-bursting, brain-frying effort needed to do it had taken its physical toll.
Elbow surgery
The elbow injury that plagued him last year and required surgery in February delayed his return to the sharp end of the big tournaments but recently there have been signs that three-time Wimbledon champion is looking hungry and eager again.
That said, every time he steps on court, he is put under the microscope. The crowd watch and draw their own conclusions, the TV and radio commentators dissect his every move in real time while the written media watch, ponder and then pontificate. And then, after every match, he has to answer questions to justify every shot, decision and action. It makes the traumas of the school report card seem pretty tame.
But why should we be the ones to buck the trend? As he prepares to face Kei Nishikori in the quarter-finals, let us take a look at Djokovic and his progress in SW19. According to the statistics provided by IBM, the former champion is ticking along nicely. Very nicely, indeed.
Averaged over his first four rounds, his first serve accuracy comes in at 73 per cent, with 35 aces so far – and that is none too shabby, particularly as he has redesigned his action several times this year following that elbow surgery.
Then there are his returns. Known as one of the best returners the game has ever seen, he has sent 38 per cent of first serves back for a winner and done likewise with 62 per cent of second serves (note to Nishikori: it might be wise to serve well on Wednesday). As for break points, he has converted 38 per cent of them and saved 66 per cent of them. His winners on the forehand and backhand sides are more or less evenly spread: 38 on the forehand side, 24 on the backhand.
Happy reading
He has come to the net 95 times and walked back to the baseline a happy man on 66 occasions (that is a 69 per cent success rate), while at the baseline he has won the point 61 per cent of the time. And it has taken him 13 sets and seven hours and 44 minutes to get this far.
All of this makes for happy reading but the one stat IBM cannot compute is how Djokovic is faring mentally. No one knows that – sometimes not even Djokovic himself. In his pomp, his ability to hit the reset button, to wipe out all negative thoughts when times were tight, was the stuff of legend. Remembering how to do that as he makes his way back to the top is the hardest part of the whole process.
He had shown flashes of his old, dominant self during the clay court season and so headed to Roland-Garros with high hopes. For four rounds, he had looked good, like the Djokovic of old. And then he ran into Marco Cecchinato in the quarter-finals and it all came unstuck.
Admittedly, Cecchinato was playing like a man possessed that day as he won in four sets but Djokovic seemed befuddled. He played into the Italian’s hands time and again, something he would never have done a couple of years before. Like any man in a car who cannot find his way, he stubbornly refused to ask for directions (his team had discussed the tactics in detail before the match) and found himself hopelessly lost. If the post-match press conference was anything to go by, he was furious with himself.
Now, as we get to the business end of The Championships, the pressure mounts, the stakes increase and it is not only physical prowess that matters, it is mental strength. Alas, the training boffins have yet to devise a mental Versaclimber to help with that.
At Roland-Garros, Djokovic’s report card would have read “could do better” for focus and mental strength. Will it read “will do better” at Wimbledon? Watch this space...
