Djokovic has game but may be lacking head

TENNIS WIMBLEDON CHAMPIONSHIPS:EVEN AFTER three days of play, the ability to deal with everything that's going on around seems as important as player ranking or the ability to hit a tennis ball. Roger Federer is the best at compartmentalising and dealing with pressure and expectation, with media demands, the big tournament swirl and constant adjustment to the grass courts as the weather changes and the competition scars them.

Novak Djokovic was able to do it once when he won the Australian Open last year but although he breezed past Germany’s Simon Greul 7-5, 6-1, 6-4 yesterday, the 22-year-old Serbian may not have the head for a Wimbledon win even if he has the game.

Although he reached the semi-finals here in 2007, he lost last year in the second round to Marat Safin who, like the 22-year-old, is magnificently talented but has had his own run-ins with his mind and come out the worse.

Twice yesterday the fourth seed referred to his nervousness and a difficulty in dealing with what is going on inside his head before and during matches.

He also declared, inadvertently, that grass is his least favourite surface. Despite his win falling into the “straightforward” and “easy” category, Djokovic took a less certain view of his performance and ability at Wimbledon than some like Federer would have done.

“Actually I made it more difficult for myself,” said Djokovic. “I don’t think I started the match very well. I was nervous. I was just waiting for him to make mistakes, which is obviously the wrong thing to do.”

Later Djokovic spoke about defending the Australian Open title he won last year, when he defeated Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in his only Grand Slam win.

In this season’s Australia Open, Melbourne was in the grip of a heat wave and he pulled out of his quarter-final with Andy Roddick mid-match.

That was no real surprise. Djokovic has a history of surrendering matches while losing in the latter stages of a grand slam. He withdrew during the quarter-finals of the 2006 French Open after losing the first two sets to Rafael Nadal then hoisted up the white flag during the 2007 semi-finals at Wimbledon, also against the Spaniard. However, the Serb defended his decision to give up against Roddick in January.

“I think the people could see that I was struggling with movement,” he said. “I really tried my best but sometimes you can’t fight against your own body.”

There were no indications anything was wrong with Djokovic until he called for a 10-minute medical timeout after falling behind in the third set.

He slung a bag of ice around his neck to try to cool down as the temperature climbed to 36 degrees, and asked the trainer to massage his legs, neck and shoulders before leaving the stadium.

“When I played this year’s Australian Open, I had a lot of expectations as defending champion,” he said after yesterday’s match.

“But yet again I changed the racket and some things. I felt a huge amount of pressure and I couldn’t really deal with it in the best way.”

Federer was next to meet the press following what could only be described as an incident-free straight set (6-2, 6-2, 6-4), win over unseeded Spaniard Guillermo Garcia-Lopez.

What did the 14 times Grand Slam champion say? “Yeah. Felt good. I expected much harder because he’s been playing well in Eastbourne. I was quite surprised I was able to win so easily.”

Federer went on to explain that the changing nature of grass courts, their speed, the new roof, his heavily pregnant partner Mirka, making history and the weather are all there and to be dealt with but hold no real grip on him when he steps on court.

Federer tends to make potential disadvantages disappear. Djokovic, although he may be simply callow with his answers, tends to seek them out.

“Hard courts have always been my favourite surface,” said Djokovic after his second game on the grass. “But I have been playing extremely well on clay courts. So I think this year on clay courts I’ve been more successful.”

It was suggested that grass is way down on his list. He didn’t exactly deny it. “Well,” said the fourth seed, “it’s not way down but I don’t think that it’s more suitable to my game.”

What Federer might have been thinking before he gave out such information, is that Fernando Verdasco, Tsonga, Juan Del Potro, Andy Roddick or Andy Murray might read it and take heart.