That Novak Djokovic should be through to the second week of the Australian Open should come as no surprise – he has won the title here six times before, after all – but that he should have done so this year for the loss of only one set seems like something of an achievement.
After half a year away from the courts nursing an elbow injury, Djokovic is still trying to remember what it is he is supposed to be doing as he makes his way through the rounds. He is a bit grumpy (these champions can get impatient as they work to get back to full match fitness), he is a bit erratic but is still too good for most people. And he was too good for Albert Ramos-Vinolas, 6-2 6-3 6-3, too good, in the third round on Saturday night.
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“I had some incredible memories of Melbourne Park in the last decade of my career,” Djokovic said. “Obviously that comes back every time I land in Melbourne and every time I come out on these courts, but obviously I have to be more humble this time with my expectations because I haven’t played for six months. But I’m very pleased with where my game is at the moment.”
As they began, the ‘win predictor’ (a helpful graphic that appears across the TV screen at the start of the match to identify the favourite) was leaning heavily in favour of the six-time champion, with 88 per cent thinking Djokovic would emerge victorious, and only 12 per cent thinking that Ramos-Vinolas could pull off an upset.
Quite who those 12 per cent were remains unclear. There were his three coaches (a chap can never have too many of those), his wife, his mum and dad, his brother and sister – that was eight people. It was a start.
Alas, as he walked on court, our Albert did not appear to be voting with them – he looked like a bloke who had wandered into the wrong party. He had that slightly haunted look of a man who recognised no one and now found himself involved in an awkward conversation with the host. “No, no, I’ve never been here before. Lovely place you have, though ...”
The match was barely a handful of games old before Ramos-Vinolas had been forced to save half a dozen break points. Well, we say ‘saved’ – actually it was more that Djokovic fluffed them. The former world No.1 is still tiptoeing down the comeback path, and this was only his third competitive match since Wimbledon. There are still plenty of rough edges to his game that need to be polished. There is a lot of Djokovic that needs a good buffing.
But buffed or not, Djokovic was still too strong for the world No.22. Ramos-Vinolas is built for clay; Djokovic regards the hard courts of Melbourne as his second home. There was little chance that this would end well for Albert.
Sure enough, after 40 minutes of baseline biffing, Djokovic was in complete control.
This match was always going to be all about the former champion. He had met the Spaniard four times before and never let his rival claim so much as a set. The only variables on Saturday evening were his gammy elbow and Lady Luck. Provided he could stay upright and uninjured, it was hard to see how Ramos-Vinolas could hurt him.
The ‘win predictor’ tended to agree. By the time the first set was decided, it had done its sums again and come to the conclusion that it was now a 98 per cent-2 per cent split in favour of Djokovic, which presumably meant that even Ramos-Vinolas’s own people were changing sides.
Lady Luck, though, can be fickle. Just when he was cruising, Djokovic called for the trainer. The elbow was fine, but now it was his left hip that was giving him grief. That required a medical time out for some seriously painful looking manipulation (surely legs are not meant to bend like that …) before Djokovic could get back to the business of marmalising poor Albert.
There was one small window of opportunity for Ramos-Vinolas and his 2 per cent following, and it came in the middle of the second set. Already a break down, the Spaniard threw everything but el lavabo de la cocina (that’s ‘the kitchen sink’ in Spanish) and earned himself four break points. But every time he manufactured one of these opportunities, he either blew it or stood and watched as Djokovic snatched it away from him.
Once Djokovic had hung on to that service game, ‘Bert did not stand a chance. The former champion was on his way to a fourth round appointment with Hyeon Chung.
