Novak knows it won’t be easy as rival is in ‘the best form of his life’

KEVIN ANDERSON is no stranger to a grass- court upset. Just three weeks ago, the South Af r i c a n , wh o measures in at 6ft 8in, found hi mself up a g a i ns t t he s e e mingly irrepressible Stan Wawrinka fresh from his French Open triumph in the second round of Queen’s.

Anderson caused an upset to win 7-6, 7-6 en route to a final against Andy Murray that he would eventually lose.

It’s worth noting that half of Anderson’s victories against top-10 players have come against Wawrinka but one of t hat e i g ht c a me a g a i nst Novak Djokovic, the defending champion at Wimbledon, who lies in wait for the South African in the final match today on No1 Court.

It is the battle of the big server — Anderson’s 79 aces rank him third at Wimbledon this year, a position he also holds on the ATP Tour in 2015 — against arguably the game’s best returner.

It is seemingly a theme of the day for the men’s draw on the showcourts as big serving takes on some potentially explosive returns in the Centre Court t u s s l e b e t we e n I v o K a r l ov i c and Murray.

But to break down Anderson v Djokovic as merely serve versus return is too simplistic. Admittedly, Djokovic has looked good on the receiving end in the tournament, enjoying a 43 per cent percentage on points won but Anderson’s tally has beenn 32 per cent, an indication of a shiftft from a reliance solely on the serve,rve, an improving facet of his gameme that has not gone unnoticed byy Djok-Djokovic

“I think he’s probably playingplaying the best tennis of his life,” said the Serbian, 28, of the world No14.

“He’s reached the highestt now in his career and keeps on going forward.

“I think he has improvedd h i s move ment a n d h i s game from the baseline but he always had a very good serve.

“It’s going to be a game of very small margins thatt wi l l b e de c i de d by a f eeww points. So I need to be ablee to get as many returns back in play.lay.

“I’ll try to mix up the pace,e, some-something similar to what I did [againstagainst Bernard Tomic]. Hopefully,ly, I’ll