Djokovic coach’s 3am Wimbledon text speaks volumes as Serb aims to make history

Highlights from day eight at Wimbledon

Novak Djokovic’s preparation and professionalism has been hailed as second to none throughout his career, which has been further evidenced by a late-night conversation involving the Serb’s coach Goran Ivanisevic at Wimbledon. The 36-year-old is aiming to win his fifth consecutive SW19 title to continue his dominance on grass.

He hasn’t lost a completed match at Wimbledon since 2016, with his 2017 quarter-final exit to Tomas Berdych having been cut short as a result of injury. His last Centre Court defeat was in 2013 to Andy Murray, with his dominance at the Grand Slam clear for all to see.

The defending champion did not have it all his own way in his fourth-round 7-6, 7-6, 5-7, 6-4 victory over Hubert Hurkacz, having struggled to handle the Polish star’s serve. He was forced to play over two days owing to the tournament’s 11.00pm curfew but managed to come out on top to reach the quarter-finals.

Australian 1987 Wimbledon champion Pat Cash has claimed that following Djokovic’s win over Hurkacz, his coach Ivanisevic text a member of their analytics staff early in the following morning with a specific request.

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Cash told the BBC: “They’ve got a stat guy I was talking to yesterday, three o’clock in the morning he got a message from Goran to say ‘We want all the replays of returns because he wasn’t returning well against Hurkacz, give us all the returns and mistakes I think there’s something we’ve picked up, can you send them to me?’ Three o’clock in the morning, it finished late anyway.”

It is testament to Djokovic’s work ethic that he has surrounded himself with coaching staff still analysing his game to such lengths during such a dominant period in his career.

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“Big credit to Hubert for playing an amazing match, tough luck for him. he put up a great performance,” Djokovic said. “Honestly, I don’t recall the last time I felt this miserable on returning games, due to his incredibly accurate and powerful serve

“He’s got one of the best serves in the world and it’s so difficult to read it. Playing on the quickest surface it really favours the big servers so it was not really an enjoyable match for me. But I guess in the important moments last night I was fortunate to win the first set. This match could definitely have gone a different way but I held my nerve and I’m happy to win.”

The work has evidently been put in to identify the areas that Djokovic needs to improve upon, as he will hope that the late hours will pay off by holding the title aloft on Sunday.

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