Novak Djokovic’s whole year was geared towards a maiden Roland Garros title, and just under 5 weeks ago he came short yet again in another final. Although he’ll no doubt have many more opportunities to join the elite 7 who have won all 4 slams, it’s clear that in his early rounds at Wimbledon there was a lack of motivation shown from the Serb.
In his first three rounds of The Championships the World #1 breezed through the likes of Philipp Kohlschreiber, Jarkko Nieminen and Bernard Tomic. Although not being pushed by any of the three for sustained periods of play Djokovic looked rather lifeless, like a man who had nothing to gain playing at Wimbledon whatsoever.
Even for the first 2 sets against the 14th seed Kevin Anderson the defending champion looked like he didn’t want to be on court. Even leading 4-0 in the second set tiebreak and then going on to lose it 8-6 to put himself two sets to love down against the huge serving South African there was barely a reaction of any note. No anger shown nor any sadness.
Two sets to love down it’s almost as if Novak Djokovic woke up. The huge hangover from losing the Roland Garros final 4-6 6-4 6-3 6-4 to Stan Wawrinka was finally starting to be put into the back of his mind, albeit slowly. From breaking Anderson’s serve early in the 4th, the world #1 was looking more motivated game by game showing more animation pumping himself and the Court 1 crowd too.
The match was suspended at 2 sets all and on the Tuesday despite having a rough start facing 2 break points early on the 2 time Wimbledon champion eventually won the match 7-5 in the 5th. Overnight it seems that the 8 time Grand Slam champion had a real thought about his 2015 Wimbledon campaign and finally completely put all of his Roland Garros memories to the back of his mind. He was as motivated as he’s been all championship, fist pumping, being vocal and even shouting at a ball girl at what he described at “the moment of battle”. He was fully engrossed in the tournament for the first time.
In his match yesterday we saw a the real Novak Djokovic show up for the first time for a full match all tournament. He was clinical, motivated and everything you would expect from the great champion in dispatching last year’s US Open champion Marin Cilic 6-4 6-4 6-4. The Anderson epic woke Djokovic up and long term it’s a great thing for the World #1. Despite almost losing before the quarter-finals in a slam for the first since since 2009, I think it’s fair to say it’s better it happened earlier rather than later.
The Serbian now plays the 21st seed Richard Gasquet in the semi-finals. Gasquet has been in great form all tournament playing some of his finest tennis in years, especially in his epic quarter-final victory over Roland Garros Champion Stan Wawrinka. Unfortunately for the Frenchman, as Cilic realised, a fully motivated Djokovic is something that is extremely hard to overcome. If the defending champion was still in the mindset that he was in the first week Gasquet might have had half a chance but as it stands I don’t see the 29 year old threatening Djokovic. He’ll get more than the 6 games he did when they played at Roland Garros just a few weeks ago but winning a set will be a hard enough challenge.
Assuming Djokovic ends up winning that semi-final the real positive of that Anderson match will be shown in the final against either Andy Murray or Roger Federer. He’ll need to be on his A game from the very get go to have any chance against either. If not he’ll find himself behind in the score such as against the South African. With no disrespect to Anderson, Murray and Federer are leagues above and won’t let the Serbian back into the match as easily as he did.
To conclude the 5 time Australian Open champion may very well still be in this year’s Wimbledon if he wasn’t motivated. But long term in the big matches late in the tournament I believe his match against Anderson was a huge turning point in his Wimbledon campaign. It made him realise that he not only needs to play better but needs to have the right mindset which is of putting all his efforts here and not dwelling on what happened in Paris. He might not win Wimbledon for the 3rd time in his career but one thing I am sure about is that he’ll go down fighting in the spirit we know the great champion for rather than the one we saw almost lose in R4.
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