At the time of going out on the track, a clueless Thanasi Kokkinakis turned to Novak Djokovic, as if asking him where they had to go to go to the bank to leave the bags. The Australian seemed like a rookie, a 26-year-old tennis player with a career marked by injuries and who has begun to raise his head this 2022: first title in singles (Adelaide, his city) and champion of the Australian Open giving a lot of play together with his faithful friend Nick Kyrgios.
He looked like a Kokkinakis rookie at the All England Club and he really was. He was playing for the first time on center court at Wimbledon, a tournament charged with mystique in which he has only been able to win one match in his few participations, the first round last Monday. On the other side of the court he had a colossal opponent, with staggering stats. Djokovic has a record of 80 wins and 10 losses in London. Six-time champion, he is now looking for the fourth in a row in his strangest year.
And it is that staying at the gates of completing the Grand Slam in 2021, this year Djokovic runs the risk of going unnoticed in the majors if he does not succeed at Wimbledon. Expelled from Australia and with the door closed at the US Open for not being vaccinated, his ceiling so far is the quarterfinals at Roland Garros, a round in which he was beaten by Nadal. That is why in London he wants to get out all that contained rage and show the world that he is still the tennis player that everyone knows.
After a hesitant debut in the first match of the season on grass, the Serb did convince the stands in the second round. The initial nerves of the World No. 79 were a blessing for Djokovic. Without too much effort, with leisurely tennis and a good choice of shots, he took advantage of his rival's vagueness to solve the duel on the fast track and reach the third round (6-1, 6-4 and 6-2), where he His compatriot Miomir Kecmanovic awaits.
Under the watchful eye of his son Stefan in the stands, Djokovic played simple, practical tennis. He did not need much more against a Kokkinakis who transformed that nervousness at the beginning into continuous mistakes for not wanting to let the Belgrade player go, paradoxically further and further on the scoreboard as the game progressed.
Unlike the South Korean Kwon in his debut on the London grass, he did not know how to demand the Aussie tennis player, who will now be able to focus on doubles to try to repeat with Kyrgios the success they achieved at Wimbledon as juniors in 2013.
Kokkinakis defined Djokovic as a "wall" before the match. That memory that he had of his only precedent of seven years ago corroborated it immediately. Djokovic was active from the bottom of the court, not giving away points that he could later miss.
Breaking him already in the first game put everything very uphill. With hardly any unforced errors, there were no cracks on serve and that allowed Djokovic to stand in the sixth game with a 4-1 with little effort. Another break and a blank game certified the first set.
Kokkinakis tried to let go at the beginning of the second set, scoring the first game, but already in the next game he lost the service again. Not even with the public in favor, whom he put in his pocket with some funny gesture, could he bother the Serbian with his kick. Only in the last game, when he served to close the match, the only break option came. Despite having a lot of margin on the scoreboard, Djokovic placated her to nail the central defender's clock in the two hours of the game.
