New Haven Register (Sunday) (New Haven, CT)
Lots at stake for Djokovic at Wimbledon
WIMBLEDON, England — Novak Djokovic is well aware, of course, of all that is in the offing over the next fortnight and, should that go well, what else would be on the horizon for him in the weeks and months that will follow.
Win his next seven matches at Wimbledon, starting Monday with the traditional honor given to the defending men’s champion of opening the Centre Court proceedings on Day 1, and Djokovic will own three consecutive titles at the All England Club.
Add those to the other three he’s won on the grass there to make six in all, and to the record nine trophies he owns from the hard courts at the Australian Open, and to the three from the hard courts at the U.S. Open, and to the two from the clay courts at the French Open — try listing all of that without pausing to take a breath — and his total Grand Slam collection would reach 20.
That would tie the men’s mark first reached by Roger Federer in 2018, then equaled last year by Rafael Nadal (who is sitting out Wimbledon).
As it is, the No. 1-ranked Djokovic has won seven of the past 12 Slams, the most ever for a man after turning 30.
Heady stuff, yes. But there’s more.
“The biggest challenge and the biggest task is always how to be present and how to stay in the moment regardless of the possibilities, the hypotheticals, and various options that are out there,” Djokovic said Saturday during a pre-tournament video conference with reporters. “There is always something on the line, I feel like, for me — probably Roger and Rafa, as well — when it comes to the tennis history in the last couple of years. We’ve been very successful, particularly in Slams.”
So let’s trace what sort of tennis history is potentially on the line.
If the 34-year-old from Serbia does win Wimbledon in two weeks’ time — FanDuel Sportsbook lists him as the men’s favorite, as does pretty much any entity or any person paying any attention to tennis — that would make him 3 for 3 at the majors in 2021; he triumphed at Melbourne Park in February, then Roland Garros two weeks ago.
The French Open, where he dethroned 13-time champ Nadal in the semifinals, then came from two sets down to edge Stefanos Tsitsipas in five in the final, “took a lot out of me, I think, mentally and physically and emotionally,“Djokovic said, then spread his arms wide for emphasis as he added: “It also granted me with an incredible amount of positive energy and confidence that created a wave that I’m trying to ride, so to say.”
If he can indeed carry that momentum through Wimbledon, a title would then put him three-fourths of the way to a true, calendar-year Grand Slam, a most-of-the-way-there-butstill-work-to-do achievement which in and of itself would be noteworthy because no man has been the champion at even the first three major tournaments of a season since Rod Laver went on to win all four in 1969.
FEDERER UNSURE ABOUT OLYMPICS
Federer is still not sure whether he will compete at the Tokyo Olympics, saying Saturday that he and his team plan to “reassess the situation after Wimbledon.”
Speaking to reporters in a video conference from the All England Club before the grass-court Grand Slam tournament begins Monday, Federer said that how things go over the coming fortnight will affect his plans for the next couple of months.
“Obviously, if I play really good here or really bad, I think it has an impact on how everything might look for the summer,” he said. “Still, my feeling is I would like to go to the Olympics. I would like to play as many tournaments as possible. But I think we decided now let’s just get through Wimbledon, sit down as a team, and then decide where we go from there.”
Wimbledon ends July 11. The Tokyo Games — which were postponed a year because of the coronavirus pandemic — are scheduled to open on July 23.