A balmy afternoon on Centre Court ended about as badly as it began for Novak Djokovic, although that will not bother him in the slightest after he defeated Britain’s Cameron Norrie to advance to a Wimbledon final against Nick Kyrgios that, he portentously predicted, will be full of emotional pyrotechnics.
Flat and disengaged at the outset, Djokovic raised home hopes by falling behind, before raising home hackles at the death by blowing a sarcastic kiss towards a spectator who cried out as he prepared to serve on match point. With his 2-6, 6-2, 6-3, 6-4 victory complete, a chorus of derision threatened to drown out the crowd’s applause. That only drove Djokovic, never one to back down from a fight, to celebrate wildly, punching the air and emitting a hearty roar as he looked up to his box.
“I was blowing kisses to somebody that that was cheering for me,” he said later with a Machiavellian smirk.
The jeers returned during the Serb’s on-court interview, although this time the object of the Centre Court crowd’s opprobrium was not the six-time champion but Kyrgios, the controversial Australian he will face on Sunday following Rafael Nadal’s withdrawal with a torn abdominal muscle.
“One thing is for sure,” said Djokovic with a sardonic smile, “there’s going to be a lot of fireworks, emotionally, from both [of us].”
Whether Djokovic will still be smiling in two days’ time remains to be seen. He has lost both his previous meetings with Kyrgios in straight sets, although neither match came at a grand slam, where the five-set format affords more time to analyse and problem-solve in the manner he did against Jannik Sinner in the quarter-finals.
Against Norrie, Djokovic offered a timely reminder of his ability to make karma out of a crisis, ruthlessly exploiting a momentary lapse of focus by his opponent to turn the tables on the 26-year-old. Broken three times in the opening set, Djokovic found fresh impetus in the second, returning from a bathroom break to concede just three points on his delivery as he levelled at a set apiece. He was helped on his way by an absolute howler from Norrie, who stabbed a simple backhand volley wide early in the eighth game with the court at his mercy.
“Just a little bit of execution, maybe lack of focus in that moment, and then he raised his game,” said Norrie. “I think he served unbelievably well.”
Djokovic required no further invitation, prising an error to break before serving out the set. He broke again at the start of the third, and from that point he did not relinquish control again until his temper got the better of him with the match won.
“It’s never pleasant to have the whole stadium cheering for your opponent,” said Djokovic. “Of course, it’s something that I expected coming into the match. It was logical for that to happen, you know, because he’s the hometown hero and they wanted him to win. I knew what kind of environment I’m going into.
“But I felt like I was maintaining my focus pretty well, considering. I was a set down and wasn’t playing well, feeling well, but then somehow I managed to turn the match around. You could see today on the court that he dropped the focus a little bit a few times, and that’s where I stepped in and really started to control the pace of the match and exchanges from the baseline.”
It has nonetheless been a run of note from Norrie, who had not previously advanced beyond the third round of a slam. Djokovic praised the younger man’s attention to detail, noting with a mixture of amusement and approval that Norrie brought his own weighing scales with him to the All England Club in order to ensure he hadn’t lost fluids following practice. It was, said Djokovic, the kind of thing he would do himself.
“It was a good experience, obviously, to play him, especially the level he brings here at Wimbledon,” said Norrie. “It gives me a lot of confidence, but it doesn’t mean anything. It’s nice to do it and experience it, I loved every moment of it. But I think I need to keep working hard. I’ve still got a lot of things I can improve on my game.”
Djokovic will now face Kyrgios in a bid to win his 21st grand slam title, an achievement that would pull him ahead of Roger Federer and leave him one behind Nadal on the all-time leaderboard. He is under no illusions about the difficulty of the task he faces against Kyrgios.
“The experience that I have at this level and playing in finals, against someone that has never played a grand slam final, could be slightly in my favour,” said Djokovic. “But at the same time, knowing who he is and how he goes about his tennis, and his attitude on the court, he doesn’t seem to be falling under pressure much. He just plays lights out every time he steps on the court, just a lot of power in his game, so I’m sure he’s going to go for it.”
It promises to be quite a ride.