LONDON: Relishing in his first top 10 victory for more than a year, Novak Djokovic is refusing to get carried away when it comes to the bigger picture.
At the Fever-Tree Championships he thrashed world No.5 Grigor Dimitrov 6-4, 6-1, to ease into the quarter-finals of the tournament. The one-sided win continues a surge in positive results for the world No.21, who returned to the tour in January following injury. Queen’s is the third consecutive tournament where he has reached at least the last eight at after Rome and the French Open.
“It was an important match for me today for various reasons. Obviously I have not won too many big matches in the last 12 months. I’m still kind of finding my form.” Djokovic assessed.
“This was a great test playing against one of the top players of the world, a player that I guess prefers this surface the most.”
During his Thursday showdown with Dimitrov, Djokovic showed occasional glimpses of frustration when he slipped on the grass. The surface can be unforgiving for players who are either coming back or dealing with injury. The fast speed as well as the lower ball bounces applies extra pressure onto certain joints such as the knee. On top of that is the risk of slipping over and sustaining injury.
Djokovic has already had his fair share of physical problems. For him, it was an elbow injury that cut short his 2017 season. He also underwent a ‘small medical procedure’ earlier this year on the elbow. After overcoming those problems, he refuses to be intimidated by the risk posed by the grass.
“That’s something I guess that you have to be prepared for and expect on the grass courts and especially with my kind of movement that is quite aggressive.” He said.
“I try to move very quickly around the courts, so sometimes you just change directions and you lose your footing.
“It is what it is. Thankfully and luckily I didn’t hurt myself. So I’m moving on.”
No time to be complacent
Whilst the latest win is a step in the right direction, Djokovic is reluctant to be lured into a false state of security. Six out of his eight defeats this year have been to players ranked outside the top 20, including five ranked outside the top 50. The most notable being World No.72 Marco Cecchinato at Roland Garros.
“I haven’t had that consistency in my game and obviously mentally trying to put things together in the last three, four months.”
On Friday the 31-year-old will lock horns with Adrian Mannarino. A French world No.26 whose best result on the grass was runner-up at last year’s Antalya Open. Djokovic leads their head-to-head 2-0. Coincidentally winning both of those previous meetings at Wimbledon in 2016 and 2017. He will be the overwhelming favorite to win, but Djokovic admits that his own game remains a work in progress.
“I don’t serve very well every match. But I am intending to do that and by training daily and on certain details technically I’m trying to improve it and trying to get it to a desired level, especially on the grass courts where it’s just necessary to have high percentage, good accuracy.” He concluded.
Should Djokovic defeat Mannarino, he would become the tenth player in the Open Era to achieve 800 wins on the tour.
