While most ATP players have been fine-tuning their games on grass at tournaments around Europe, Novak Djokovic eased back into practice.
The 36-year-old holidayed following his latest Grand Slam victory at Roland Garros, reappearing three days ago with a post showing him “back at it” on the practice court, accompanied by the hashtag #worksmartnothard.
He has since arrived in London, enjoying a hit-out on the lawns at the All England Club with Stan Wawrinka. He also nibbled on a blade of grass, a homage to his traditional title-winning celebration that began in 2011.
Apart from an appearance at the exhibition event in Hurlingham, Djokovic will not play any competitive matches on grass before Wimbledon.
But he has developed his preparation for The Championships into an art form.
“The fact that I won the last four Wimbledons gives me a lot of confidence,” Djokovic told Tennis Channel after his triumph in Paris.
A year ago, we wrote an article previewing the men’s tournament at Wimbledon. The theme was extremely similar: who could stop Djokovic at Wimbledon?
You could argue he is an even heavier favourite 12 months on.
Djokovic has not tasted defeat at Wimbledon since 2017, but that came via an injury retirement. He has not lost a completed match there since 2016, when Sam Querrey stunned him in four sets in the third round.
It has been 10 years since Djokovic was beaten on Centre Court. Since his loss to Andy Murray in the 2013 final, he has won 39 consecutive matches on that court – the longest Centre Court winning streak in history.
With Wimbledon titles in 2018, 2019, 2021 and 2022, Djokovic is on a 28-match winning streak at the All England Club.
Victory in 2023 would give him an eighth title, equalling Roger Federer with the most Wimbledon men’s singles titles of all time.
It would be his 24th major singles title, equalling Margaret Court as the player with the most Grand Slam singles titles in history. He already owns the men's all-time record of 23.
And it would put him three-quarters of the way to a calendar Grand Slam.
These would be stratospheric achievements, ones that may sound absurd to consider before the tournament has even started.
But they are entirely feasible, given Djokovic’s dominance in the five-set Grand Slam format.
With the Australian and French titles already under his belt, he is on a 14-match winning streak at Slams in 2023, winning 42 of the 45 sets he has contested.
Arguably at his best on hard courts, he has developed his game to a point where he is perhaps even further ahead of the field on grass.
He has won 86 matches at Wimbledon – more than the rest of the ATP top 20 combined.
MAIN DRAW MATCH WINS AT WIMBLEDON: ATP TOP 20
Simon Rea, former coach of Nick Kyrgios and Sam Stosur, believes grass boosts elements of Djokovic’s already water-tight game.
"He's got the ability to handle that additional pop (on serve) that might be coming at him on the grass from a return-of-serve perspective; he's going to manage that, he's the greatest returner we've ever seen," Rea said on last week’s episode of The AO Show podcast.
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"(Then) he gets a little more value on his own service games, and I think his own serve is underrated, in a lot of ways.
"There's no obvious hole. And I tracked back over time ... Querrey beat him in 2016, hit him off the court. And that's the only way I can kind of see… if you can come out blasting, perhaps you stand a chance to get a set or two and rattle him a little bit early in the tournament.
"Outside of that, there is no way through this guy. He's the overwhelming favourite in my mind. I can't see a weakness in the Djokovic game.
"And in fact, some of the strengths, I think, are continuing to improve."
Should Djokovic win the seven matches required to lift the trophy, he would own more singles match wins at Wimbledon (93) than at any of the other majors.
Perhaps the best player with a shot of stopping him is Carlos Alcaraz.
The Spaniard returned to world No.1 this week following his triumph at Queen’s Club, a first career grass-court title.
He possesses that necessary firepower to potentially blast his way through second-ranked Djokovic, but that match-up would not come early in the tournament – it is only possible in the final.
Alcaraz is acutely aware of Djokovic’s prowess at Wimbledon, and the momentous challenge he poses on the Grand Slam stage. He was on the receiving end of Djokovic’s brilliance in the Roland Garros semifinals.
“I go into Wimbledon right now with a lot of confidence. That's obvious,” Alcaraz said after beating Alex de Minaur in Sunday’s Queen’s final.
“So I saw a statistic that Novak has won more matches in Wimbledon than the other top 20 players. What can I say about that? I mean, Novak is the main favourite to win Wimbledon. That's obvious.
Novak Djokovic has more Wimbledon match wins than the current top 20 ????????! ? pic.twitter.com/YQMqed4oVB
— Eurosport (@eurosport) June 23, 2023
“I saw as well that Djokovic has never lost a match in the Centre Court since I think 2013 when he lost against Andy, so it's 10 years without losing a match in the Centre Court of Wimbledon. So it's been crazy.
“But I will try to play at this level to have chances to beat him or make the final at Wimbledon.”