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No knee? No problem.
There aren’t many things Novak Djokovic hasn’t done on a tennis court, but after Tuesday afternoon, when he won his opening match at this year’s Wimbledon 27 days after undergoing surgery to repair his right knee, there is one fewer.
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Djokovic only had limited access to his usually elastic mobility. He couldn’t bend and stretch into his usual contortions.
Whatever.
The Serbian has spent the past week rehabbing his right knee while trying to convince himself and everyone around him that he can manage the lingering pain, discomfort and limitations that come along with meniscus surgery while having a realistic chance to win an eighth Wimbledon title.
On Tuesday, he made good on that promise, playing in a tight, grey brace — approved by the All England Club and its rigorous dress code — while eliminating Vit Kopriva of the Czech Republic with ease, 6-1, 6-2, 6-2.
It was, mostly by necessity, among the most efficient wins of his career.
It was a strange day at the All England Club, where all the buzz centered on the fortunes of two recently surgically-repaired champions.
In a hobbling race for the Centre Court starting bell, Andy Murray had lost by mid-morning. The Scot, a two-time men’s title winner here, had a cyst removed from his spine a week and a half ago. It was just too soon for him. Not so for Djokovic, who finished off the win with three consecutive aces and little more than an easy pump of his fist toward his team watching up in their box, as if it were just another day at the office — less than four weeks after coming off an operating table.
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“I didn’t really know how things were going to unfold,” Djokovic said on the court when it was over. “If it was for any other tournament, I wouldn’t risk it, wouldn’t rush it as much.”
Then he thanked his surgeon, even though in this case, it was how Djokovic had approached the rehabilitation process that had made playing a possibility.
This was hardly a vintage performance.
Djokovic struggled to get low on his backhand, not quite able to lean his bandaged knee into the shot. He moved gingerly and delicately across the London grass at times, rather like a homeowner making his way across an icy front walkway, testing the suppleness of that knee without applying too much risk.
There were some awkward-looking stretches for forehands that, under normal circumstances, he might have ripped down the line. Not just yet. Not so fast.
Still, that may come in time, because maybe Tuesday’s win was the most vintage performance from the ultimate master of match management.
He is a player who knows how to work his way through the two-week grind of a Grand Slam tournament and play himself into form better than anyone else. This was Djokovic doing, over the course of a match, what he hopes to do over the next two weeks — starting in a certain gear and at a certain speed, then gradually revving up the stress level on his knee as the match dictates.
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The first big test came in the third game of the second set, the tenth of the match.
Kopriva hit a forehand crosscourt while Djokovic was leaning down the line, waiting on his chance to break the Czech’s serve and likely his resolve too. After all these years, what he did next was simply instinct, as misguided as it might have been: the quick pivot and sprint to his right, and then the stretching slide, with the majority of his weight on that right knee, his foot vibrating across the grass as he slid.
A gasp rose from the crowd.
A split-second later, the ball was over the net and Djokovic was scrambling to the middle of the court; within another few shots, he was unleashing that fist pump and that roar — his first of the tournament.
Djokovic said he intentionally started cautiously and that he started moving better throughout the match. Three hours later, he was still thinking about that early second set slide, the first of the grass-court season, including practice.
“That was a great test,” he said. “After that, I felt happy that I did it because, in a way, you also feel mentally hesitant to do those extreme movements. But knowing that I can do it is, obviously, very comforting and very positive.”
Maybe this — an eighth title at SW19, the miraculous return, the finding something in tennis that he hasn’t done yet, as a man who has done it all — really is possible?
A few more opponents similar to Kopriva would surely help matters. In drawing him for his first match, Djokovic may have received as good a piece of fortune as he has received in all his years at Wimbledon — and this is someone who has induced errors from Roger Federer when down match point in a final.
Kopriva, a 27-year-old, was playing only his second Grand Slam match. His first was six months ago at the Australian Open. He is ranked 123rd in the world.
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He tried from the start to move his opponent around the court, but Djokovic wasn’t having it.
He planted his feet a foot or two behind the baseline and jumped at every chance to take control of points. There were a few moments when Djokovic finished a point slightly out of breath, and a couple of others when he moaned on shots the way he does when he has decided he is going to win a point no matter what it takes.
Kopriva said he tried not to think about Djokovic’s injury, as he had heard him say ahead of the tournament he would not be playing unless he felt he had a chance to compete for the title. Then he saw it in the flesh. “I could tell immediately his knee was perfect, just after watching him for a few shots,” Kopriva said. “Three and a half weeks ago, surgery. It’s crazy.”
There are fewer glorified practice matches at a Grand Slam. But there were long stretches when this felt like one, the latest dance with the ridiculous for Djokovic in a career that has been full of them.
“Little bit of different circumstances coming into Wimbledon this year,” he joked at the end.
Just a little.
(Top photo: Andrej Isakovic/AFP via Getty Images)
