Wimbledon 2023: How do you beat Novak Djokovic?
Asked for an answer following his third-round defeat on Friday, Stan Wawrinka stated there merely wasn’t one. In an excellent world, he stated, “someone can beat him… but I would be astonished to see it here”.
Djokovic has not misplaced on Centre Court for a decade since Andy Murray’s first Wimbledon title. So how precisely do you beat him? When requested, three-time Wimbledon champion John McEnroe, hardly ever a person misplaced for phrases, merely stated: “I don’t have an answer.”
His co-commentator on the BBC Tim Henman’s resolution, in the meantime, was primarily considered one of hit and hope. “You’ve got to concentrate on your game and hope he hits a few bad shots,” stated the previous Wimbledon semi-finalist. “But take into consideration he hasn’t lost on this court for 10 years and I think he fancies his chances against most people.”
In the fourth spherical, which spanned Sunday and yesterday, Hubert Hurkacz performed nigh-on his finest tennis. He rifled down sport after sport of monstrous serves and conceded simply 4 factors on serve in deservedly profitable the fourth set.
Prior to the fourth set in opposition to Djokovic, he had not misplaced a service video games. But when the one likelihood of the entire match was provided up, the 23-time grand slam took it, the only break in opposition to Hurkacz in 69 service video games.
Craig O’Shannessy was former the technique coach for Djokovic, dissecting information to feed again to his participant.
“There are two parts to winning Wimbledon, one is holding serve and one is breaking serve,” stated the Australian. “Hurkacz is the poster child for holding serve but is out of the tournament. The problem is he couldn’t break Novak, his forehand wasn’t good enough. He made way too many errors.”
In the opening two units, Djokovic held to like on six events and solely as soon as was taken to deuce.
“The problem is Hurkacz couldn’t apply any pressure,” stated O’Shannessy. “Novak’s just cruising on serve and that builds up over time. That just gives him massive confidence when it comes to a tiebreaker that the other guy is not going to put a lot of returns in play.”
Djokovic has an ideal capability to discover a weak spot in an opponent be that pre-match or because the match wore on. In the case of Hurkacz, it was the forehand, which he relentlessly peppered till lastly it cracked.
Feliciano Lopez performed Djokovic 10 instances in his profession earlier than his retirement, solely as soon as discovering a technique to win. Unpicking him is a thriller to have plagued many different gamers past him.
On the issue of going through him, Lopez stated: “You talk about weaknesses and I don’t see any. With Roger Federer or Rafael Nadal, there wasn’t so much a weakness but you could find a spot to hit balls – like Roger’s backhand side was not that aggressive. With those two I sometimes felt I had a small chance to do something. That’s not the case with Novak.”
The former world No1 has proven occasional fallibility. Rustiness is usually an element. Of his 4 losses this season, two got here after prolonged breaks from enjoying, one got here in Monte Carlo the place he has habitually struggled and a fourth on the Italian Open.
Rune was his vanquisher in Rome, the win a credit score to him being aggressive, buying and selling blows confidently from the again of the courtroom and selecting the correct second to the push the online.
Doing that over 5 units is one other matter. Such is the focus wanted to beat Djokovic over only a single set at Wimbledon, sustaining that for 5 is nigh-on inconceivable.
O’Shannessy stated maybe one of the best ways to beat Djokovic is for him to beat himself.
He added: “There’s another way Novak loses, his loses his mind. We’ve seen it at times when he just gets so mad on court he can’t see straight from screaming at his box. I don’t see that happening at Centre Court Wimbledon.”
Djokovic doesn’t appear like cracking. So relaxed was he earlier than the Hurkacz match, he was nonetheless laughing and joking enjoying board video games along with his group half an hour beforehand. And unsurprisingly, he gained that board sport too.