The routine is becoming familiar. One moment Novak Djokovic is trailing a teenage trailblazer on one of the world’s great show courts, the next he is sauntering to victory with such casual ease that you wonder how he ever got into trouble in the first place.
For Italy’s Lorenzo Musetti at the French Open, read Britain’s Jack Draper at Wimbledon. Djokovic opened his challenge for a sixth title at the All England Club with a 4-6, 6-1, 6-2, 6-2 win that will be remembered for a spirited Centre Court debut by the 19-year-old Draper, a wildcard ranked 253 in the world.
It wasn’t quite the virtuoso performance of Musetti in Paris, where Djokovic looked to be in genuine danger after losing the first two sets. There was never any real sense of a potential upset brewing. Draper was forced to fend off seven break points in the opening set, and it always seemed likely that the direction of travel would change once Djokovic found his range on the return.
Yet Draper did more than enough to demonstrate that he has the game to trouble the very best on grass, just as he had in beating Jannik Sinner and Alexander Bublik, both ranked inside the world’s top 40, en route to the quarter-finals at Queen’s Club. To put Draper’s achievement in context, it was the first time since 2010 that Djokovic has dropped a set in the opening round of Wimbledon.
“I thought he was playing well, he was fighting,” said Djokovic, who will play Kevin Anderson, his opponent in the 2018 final, in round two.
“For him, it was a unique occasion playing for the first time on the Wimbledon Centre Court. He has done well. He’s a youngster, 19 years old, but he’s tall, he’s strong, he’s got that lefty serve that is very awkward for right-handed players to face, particularly on grass. He’s got an all-round game really, very good flat backhand, also a good forehand. Maybe his movement could improve, he probably can and should move a bit better, but he’s still young and there’s always room for improvement. He’s got a very good base.”
If Djokovic had hoped his opponent might be overawed by the occasion, he was to be disappointed. For a set, Draper’s swinging southpaw serve frequently had the game’s greatest returner at sixes and sevens. Draper was not afraid to trade blows with the defending champion from the back of the court either, fearlessly committing to his shots. As he found corners and painted lines, his two-handed backhand was so effective that at times he resembled a left-handed Djokovic.
The problem for Draper was that once Djokovic had got the measure of his serve, he grew in confidence on his own delivery. It left Draper with no way of hurting the world No 1, and it is indicative of the way the dynamic of the match shifted that while Djokovic finished the afternoon with 25 aces – “One of the best serving performances that I can recall on any surface,” he later called it – the teenager won only eight points against serve after the first set.
There is a serenity that comes over Djokovic in these situations, and it may yet carry him to what would be the third leg of a grand slam, following his victories at the Australian and French Opens. He is an overwhelming favourite for Wimbledon, and his mood will no doubt have brightened even further when he learned that Stefanos Tsitsipas, who led him by two sets to love at Roland Garros a fortnight ago, had lost to Frances Tiafoe in straight sets. Tsitsipas, the third seed, suffered the first of four breaks in the opening game and failed to convert any of his seven opportunities against the American’s serve as he fell to a 6-4, 6-4, 6-3 defeat on Court One.
“My opponent played significantly better than me,” said Tsitsipas, who was seeded to meet Djokovic in the semi-finals. “There wasn’t the drive that I was hoping for. There wasn’t that same fighting spirit that I usually put out on the court.
“I was thinking maybe I should have played the week before Wimbledon, either Mallorca or Eastbourne, I’m not sure. Any of these tournaments would have helped get me in a better shape, get my tennis ready for the grass-court season.
“The transition from clay to grass, in my opinion, is probably the most difficult one, if not the biggest challenge in our sport. I just wasn’t able to adapt, I wasn’t able to figure these things out early in the match. You just cannot be defensive on grass. It takes away so much from your game.
“I honestly feel if I could have worked a bit more. If I would have played a bit more on that surface, I’m pretty confident I would have done better.”
It was the first time that the 56th-ranked Tiafoe, the title winner in Nottingham and a quarter-finalist at Queen’s Club, had beaten a top-five player.