Novak Djokovic’s high-stake Wimbledon in a year going wrong

A year on as another Wimbledon kicks off on Monday, Djokovic finds himself in completely contrasting circumstances. For starters, he is no longer the world No 1, his diminishing dominance underlined by a solitary title in the first six months. More significantly, he is stuck on 20, failing to add to his Grand Slam tally after winning at the All-England Club last year.

And should he falter in his title defence, Djokovic stares at the possibility of going an entire year sans Slam; the only time that has happened in the last 10 years was in 2017 when the injury-ravaged Serb shut off the second half of the season.

This time, it’s not his body in question. Djokovic will not be able to compete at the US Open in August due to the same reason he couldn’t defend his Australian Open title: his refusal to get vaccinated. As of today, USA has a vaccine mandate for travellers to the country, a rule that Djokovic tried to navigate his way around only to be driven out of Australia early this year.

He sat out the Australian Open, was packed off in the French Open quarter-finals by the rampaging Nadal and—unless US softens its protocols—will have to skip the US Open. A one-word reply of “yes” to a query in Saturday’s press conference on whether he has ruled out getting vaccinated shuts down the other option.

A lot, therefore, rides on this Wimbledon for Djokovic—the career’s 21st as well as the season’s first.

“As of today, I’m not allowed to enter the States. So yes, of course, I am aware of that. And that is an extra motivation to do well here. Hopefully I can have a very good tournament, as I have done in the last three editions,” Djokovic said.

Not that he needs to pump himself more to succeed at Wimbledon. Djokovic is a six-time champion, his name inscribed on the honours board in the last three editions. Another title would place him alongside Pete Sampras on seven titles and one short of Roger Federer’s record of eight. His self-belief of going deep again came across clearly when he corrected his sentence while talking about the prospect of winning four Wimbledon titles in a row. “I would love to be in the position to fight for another trophy… well, I am in that position… but I’d like to be in the last match to eventually make history in this tournament,” Djokovic said.

There’s already some history attached to it. This Wimbledon will offer no ranking points for players after the organisers banned Russian and Belarusian players and tennis’ governing bodies acted upon it. Djokovic will thus lose all of his 2,000 points earned with last year’s victory. But for the world No 3, who has already surrendered his top spot on which he had an iron-hold not too long ago, rankings are no longer high priority. “Now I’m not really chasing the ranking as much as I have,” Djokovic, who begins Centre Court proceedings on Monday against Korea’s Soonwoo Kwon, said.

There are quite a few chasing him and the trophy, though. The world’s top two players—Russia’s banned No 1 Daniil Medvedev and Germany’s injured No 2 Alexander Zverev—might be missing but other challengers are hovering.

Nadal is pain free in the foot and brimming with quality and confidence in the game. The World No 4, fresh off his 22nd Grand Slam title at the French Open after the Australian Open triumph, hasn’t won Wimbledon in 11 years, but this season has been about surprises from the Spaniard. Stefanos Tsitsipas is coming off a maiden title on grass in Mallorca while Matteo Berrettini—last year’s finalist—returns from an injury lay-off. Carlos Alcaraz, the Spanish teen who dominated conversations leading up to the French Open before losing in the quarter-finals, will have to find his feet on grass and could be a potential last-eight opponent for Djokovic.

Like Nadal, Djokovic’s fine-tuning on grass has been limited to an exhibition event at Hurlingham Club. The Serb isn’t too fussed about that. “Over the years I’ve had success adapting to the surface, so there’s no reason to not believe that I can do it again.”