Djokovic regains focus to boost his title chances
All it took was a couple of questionable calls for Novak Djokovic to snap at the chair umpire in the second game of his third-round match at Wimbledon.
“That’s two points in a row at the beginning of the match,” Djokovic said, before telling official Jake Garner: “Focus, please!”
That would have been good advice for Djokovic himself. Maybe he was a bit on edge because this was the stage at which, as a two-time defending champion, he lost at the All England Club a year ago. Yesterday, Djokovic briefly fell behind by an early break before zipping past Ernests Gulbis of Latvia 6-4, 6-1, 7-6 (2) to earn his 10th berth in the tournament’s second week.
Right after his conversation with Garner, Djokovic lost a service game to trail 2-1. He later fell behind 4-2 in the opening set. But from there, Djokovic used a nine-game run to seize control and wasn’t broken again.
“As soon as you give a guy like Novak the tools to step on the gas, he will step on the gas,” said Gulbis, who has been a top-10 player and a French Open semifinalist. “And he just goes, and he doesn’t look back.”
Three of Djokovic’s 12 major championships have come at Wimbledon, and after a real dip in results over the past 12 months, he has not dropped a set so far this fortnight.
“That only can boost my confidence level,” the No 2-seeded Djokovic said, “for whatever is coming up next.”
After the grass-court Grand Slam tournament’s traditional middle Sunday off, he will face 51st-ranked Adrian Mannarino of France for a place in the quarter-finals.
All 16 fourth-round singles matches are scheduled for tomorrow — Wimbledon is the only major that does it that way — including these in the bottom half of the men’s draw: No 3 Roger Federer v No 13 Grigor Dimitrov, a guy nicknamed “Baby Fed” because of his similarities to the seven-time Wimbledon champion; 2016 runner-up Milos Raonic v No 10 Alexander Zverev; and 2010 runnerup Tomas Berdych v No 8 Dominic Thiem.
Federer, like Djokovic, has won every set he’s played this week, including yesterday’s 7-6 (3), 6-4, 6-4 win against No 27 Mischa Zverev, Alexander’s older, left-handed, serve-andvolleying brother.
“It’s important to get through the first week with a good feeling,” said Federer, who compiled hard-tobelieve official statistics of 61 winners to a mere seven unforced errors, “and I think I got that.”
The result made Federer the first man to get to 15-0 in third-round matches at Wimbledon.
After completing his career Grand Slam by winning last year’s French Open for a fourth consecutive major title, Djokovic went through some struggles, including his upset loss to Querrey at Wimbledon.
A series of changes followed, including a split with coach Boris Becker and other long-time members of Djokovic’s entourage. He enlisted Andre Agassi’s unpaid help for part of this year’s French Open. Now they’ve been joined by another former player, Mario Ancic, who sat next to Agassi at Centre Court yesterday.
“I’m glad to have them both,” Djokovic said. “I think they contribute in their own way to my game. But most of all, there is great chemistry, great synergy, great understanding, respect for each other.”
Asked about telling the chair umpire to “focus,” Djokovic smiled sheepishly before responding, “Well, I think he’s probably frustrated with me saying that. Maybe it was not the right words to say. I apologise.”