It has been close to two years since Novak Djokovic last won a Grand Slam with his last grand slam win coming in the form of 2023 US Open, when the Serbian scored a 6-3 7-6 (7-5) 6-3 over Russian Daniel Medvedev in the final to win his 24th Grand Slam singles title. The last two years has also seen the Serbian losing the Wimbledon final against Spanish Carlos Alcaraz. 38-year old Djokovic will face Italian Flavio Cobolli in the men’s singles’ quarterfinal at Wimbledon today evening and to be on his path to win his eighth Wimbledon title to match Roger Federer’s record of eight Wimbledon titles. Former world number 11 and 2022 Wimbledon finalist Nick Kyrgios, whom Djokovic had defeated in the 2022 Wimbledon final to win his seventh Wimbledon title, believes the Serbian has ‘flown a little bit under the radar’.
“I was speaking about this to my team, I feel like he’s actually flown a little bit under the radar because of (Jannik) Sinner and the technology and everything that’s going on in the tournament. I feel like Djokovic is kind of playing some of the best tennis I’ve seen him play in the last couple of years here. He looks like his body is feeling really good, he looks injury-free, and I think he does believe that he can win it. I think that him flying under the radar and people kind of forgetting about him and everyone talking about (Carlos) Alcaraz and Sinner I do feel like Novak kind of feels like he can win it. Yeah, I think he can.” said Kyrgios, while speaking with talkSPORT.
The Serbian has faced Cobolli only once in his career. The two had faced each other in the round of 32 in the ATP Masters 1000 in Shanghai, where Djokovic had scored a 6-1, 6-2 win on the outdoor hard court. At Wimbledon this year, Cobolli has carved out wins against 15th seed Jakub Mensik and Marin Cilic on his way to the quarter-final clash against Djokovic. If Djokovic wins the match against Cobolli today evening, the Serbian will face the winner between world number one Jannik Sinner or Ben Shelton. Former world number one and 2003 US Open winner Andy Roddick sees the Serbian will find a way to win a Grand Slam again. “I’m telling you, the chips are down, he is still going to find a way to put that chip on his shoulder. He is not going to talk about TikToks. It’s fine when it’s all friendly but Novak used to do that when he first came out, he would get the crowd involved and do the dances. Don’t take that [mistake]! There is an animal in there we have all seen before. It’s like don’t poke the bear. It’s coming. There is going to be something chippy coming, he thrives on it. He will create it, just to use it, if he needs to. I can’t say enough about him.” Roddick said while speaking on his Quick Served podcast.
If he wins, Djokovic will also become the second male player in the Open era to reach the Wimbledon semi-finals aged 38 years or more with Ken Rosewell being the first when he achieved the feat in 1974. Earlier this week, Djokovic had talked about his son Stefan practicing against Cobolli and joked that he will ask Stefan about Fobolli’s game.
“They hit a few days ago. They played some points. Obviously, he loves tennis. He has everyone’s signature, except mine. But that’s okay, I’ll accept that! I’ll have a conversation with my son and see what he has noticed in the game of Cobolli,” Djokovic had said.
