Wimbledon has played a starring role in the life of Novak Djokovic. As a boy, he famously fashioned a replica of the men’s singles trophy from cardboard and tinfoil; as a man, he has lifted the real thing on six occasions. But rarely can the Championships have felt more significant to Djokovic than they do now, at the midpoint of a chaotic season that began with his ejection from Australia and saw him dethroned by Rafael Nadal at Roland Garros last month.
Six months of setbacks have infused Djokovic’s quest for another Wimbledon victory with real urgency. Nadal, who capitalised on his rival’s absence to win the Australian Open and then rubbed salt in the wound by claiming a record-extending 22nd slam in Paris, now stands two wins clear on the all-time list of men’s major winners. Daniil Medvedev has usurped him as world No 1. Carlos Alcaraz, who defeated him when they met for the first time at last month’s Madrid Open, is coming up fast on the rails. Suddenly, Djokovic is no longer the main man.
It is a scenario that would barely have seemed conceivable last September, when Djokovic went into the US Open final just one victory away from completing the first calendar-year grand slam in more than half a century. Then, history seemed his to shape. Now, having lost that career-defining match to Medvedev, Djokovic finds himself playing catch-up in the race to be proclaimed the greatest men’s player of all time.
Unable to play at Flushing Meadows under current US entry rules, which require all foreign arrivals to be vaccinated against Covid, Djokovic knows that this is likely to be his last chance to directly influence Nadal’s quest to complete a grand-slam season of his own. Should the pair meet in the final, as the seedings suggest they will, Djokovic will not want for motivation.
“As of today, I am not allowed to enter the States,” said Djokovic, who will play South Korea’s Kwon Soon-woo in Monday’s opening match on Centre Court. “Of course, I’m aware of that, and that is an extra motivation to do well here. So hopefully I can have a very good tournament, as I have done in the last three editions, and then I’ll just have to wait and see.
“I’d love to go to the States, but as of today that’s not possible. There’s not much I can do any more, it’s really up to the US government to make a decision whether they allow unvaccinated people to go into the country.”
One thing he could do, of course, is get inoculated. Yet the stubborn streak that has so often underpinned his success on the court also extends beyond it. Asked at Wimbledon’s media day if he had closed his mind to vaccination, Djokovic replied with a succinct affirmative and a quiet smile. Wimbledon will therefore define not only his season, but quite possibly his place in the pantheon. Win it, and he will once again be on Nadal’s coat-tails; lose it, and the gap to the Spaniard could become unbridgeable.
The draw has fallen relatively kindly for the 35-year-old. If the seedings hold, Djokovic will face a last-eight appointment with Alcaraz before meeting Casper Ruud, the third seed and French Open finalist. Whether either of those contests will actually materialise is another question.
Alcaraz has all the tools required to succeed on grass, but little by way of experience. Brushed aside by Medvedev on his debut at the All England Club last summer, the 19-yer-old has not played a competitive match since losing to Alexander Zverev in the French Open quarter-finals, and comes into Wimbledon short of match practice after suffering an elbow injury that kept him out of Queen’s. Alcaraz played an exhibition event at the Hurlingham Club with his elbow strapped, losing both his matches in straight sets, and there may be more to his insistence that he is not yet ready to win on grass than the standard downplaying of expectations.
The second of those losses came against Ruud, whose antipathy to the surface is hardly a secret. The Norwegian third seed, who joked earlier this year that grass is for golfers, was beaten by British wildcard Ryan Peniston at Queen’s and has failed to advance beyond the opening round in two previous attempts.
That leaves Hubert Hurkacz, the champion in Halle final last week and a semi-finalist at Wimbledon last year, as arguably the biggest threat to Djokovic’s prospects of contesting an eighth final. With John Isner and Reilly Opelka in his quarter, Djokovic will be well attuned to facing big servers should the Pole advance to the last four again.
The big unknown in Djokovic’s quarter is Andy Murray, the champion of 2013 and 2016, who could play Alcaraz in the last 16. Murray played some of his best tennis in years en route to the Stuttgart final a fortnight ago, only to suffer an abdominal injury that rendered him lame down the stretch against Matteo Berrettini. Forced to pull out of Queen’s, where he is a five-time winner, Murray has been feeling his way back gradually, but only started serving and hitting overheads again this week. Much will depend on how his body holds up.
“I think I showed a couple weeks ago that there is still good tennis left in me,” said Murray, who faces James Duckworth of Australia in the third match on Centre Court.
“I beat a guy in the top five in the world [Stefanos Tsitsipas] and was neck-and-neck with Berrettini, who is one of the best grass court players in the world, before the injury. I played well against [Nick] Kyrgios as well for the first set, [it] was a good level, and I have been doing pretty well in practices, so I know the tennis is in there, I just need to bring it out during the event now.”
Nadal nevertheless remains the man of the moment in grand slam competition, and Djokovic will be grateful the second-seeded Spaniard is in the opposite half of the draw this time around. Four years ago, the pair contested an epic semi-final that spanned two days and more than five hours before Djokovic – helped on his way by the egregious decision to close the Centre Court roof on a brilliant summer’s day – squeaked home 10-8 in the fifth. The Spaniard struck a potentially significant psychological blow with his recent victory over Djokovic in Paris and, crucially, would go into their 60th meeting free of pain for the first time in more than a year and a half after undergoing radiofrequency ablation treatment to deaden the nerve in his foot.
“Things are going better, if not I would not be here,” said Nadal, who needed multiple anaesthetic injections to get through the French Open. “I’m quite happy about how things have evolved. I can’t be super happy, because I don’t know what can happen, but I only can speak about the feelings that I’m having the last few weeks, and there are a couple of things that are so important for me.
“First of all, I can walk normal most of the days, almost every single day – that’s for me the main issue, when I wake up I don’t have this pain that I was having for the last year and a half.
“Second thing, practising, I have been overall better, honestly, no? Since the last two weeks I didn’t have one day of those terrible days [where] I can’t move at all. Of course, there are days that are better, days that are worse, but the overall feelings are positive. I am in a positive way in terms of pain, and that’s the main thing.”
In the 11 years since he last reached the final, Nadal has often been vulnerable to a big server in the early rounds. Sam Querrey and Marin Cilic both fall firmly into that category, as do his prospective quarter- and semi-final opponents, Felix Auger-Aliassime and Berrettini.
Of that quartet, it is Berrettini who poses the greatest danger. The powerful Italian arrives in SW19 in optimal condition, his confidence bolstered by title runs in Stuttgart and at Queen’s Club, but otherwise lightly raced after three months out following hand surgery. Seeded eighth, Berrettini is expected to meet Tsitsipas in the quarter-finals, although the Greek must first advance beyond the opening round for the first time since 2018. The auspices are encouraging for Tsitsipas, who warmed up for Wimbledon by winning the first grass-court title of his career at the Mallorca Championships. Berrettini, who has been beaten just once in 21 outings on grass, would nonetheless go in as the de facto favourite.
Nadal has won his two previous encounters with Berrettini, at the US Open three years ago and at Melbourne Park in January, but he is not one for looking back. Now, more than ever, the Mallorcan’s eyes are fixed only on the road ahead.
“Past is past, and sport – and life – goes so quick,” said Nadal, who faces Argentina’s Francisco Cerúndolo in the opening round. “I am not a big fan of keep living on the things that you achieved, because sport doesn’t give you that time.”
For Nadal, as for Djokovic, the next fortnight is all that matters.