When Novak Djokovic is so generous as to throw you a bone by offering up break points, you must take them. You simply must.
The great paradox of Djokovic is that his best tennis follows a glint or even a hint of his opponent’s best. Raise your game at him and he will raise his to oust you.
It is worth bearing this in mind when trying to understand quite how anyone can reach 35 Grand Slam finals. Jannik Sinner had hoped to reach his very first — but this is simply what Djokovic does.
Djokovic will now face either Carlos Alcaraz or Daniil Medvedev in Sunday’s final after downing Sinner 6-3, 6-4, 7-6.
This was Sinner’s first experience of a major semi-final, and it was difficult to tell whether he was spurred on by winning the first two sets against Djokovic in their gruelling Wimbledon quarter-final last year, or dogged by the fact the Serb clawed his way back to beat the Italian that day.
“I don’t want to sound arrogant, but of course I’m the favourite”, said an unabashed Djokovic after his four-set victory over Andrey Rublev on Tuesday.
But his justification for saying so was that he had won all of the last four Wimbledons. How can anyone tell the man his confidence was unjustified after that? Sinner hoped to be chief disruptor, to topple the octochamp-elect.
The two break points that came and went for Sinner in the very first game of the match would be moments the 21-year-old would come to rue as the afternoon unfolded under the roof on Centre Court.
Before Katherine Jenkins and Louis Theroux had even taken their seats in the royal box, Djokovic had held serve, broken Sinner, and held again.
And then at 3-0, the 36-year-old offered up more break points that the Italian was unable to convert into real currency. Soon the first set was over — 6-3 to the defending champion.
After Djokovic broke Sinner early in the second set to edge 2-1 ahead, Sinner had yet more chances to break serve in a game in which Djokovic was docked a point for a vocal hinderance and then given a time violation for taking too long to serve. Still Sinner played stellar tennis. Still he asked Djokovic questions. Still Djokovic held firm.
Sinner offered up break points of his own when already 2-4 down in the second set, and while he saved them by winning four points in a row, still Djokovic came through the set and still Sinner struggled to be anything more than merely ‘competitive’ in this high-quality but oh-so-inevitable affair.
By the end of the second set, Sinner had fired 30 winners to Djokovic’s 20, and yet he was two sets down. He’d raised his game for Djokovic, but Djokovic had raised his game for him. Every time he won a point, a different combination of his enormous entourage would jump to their feet and cheer the Serb on.
Sinner’s stunning line winners were in high supply throughout the match — and they even earned the Italian a couple of set points in the third — but Djokovic remains the man for the big occasion, even if his sarcastic celebration of mimicking tears after saving those break points did earn him a boo from the crowd.
But as consistently present as they always have been for almost two decades were the agility and ability of Djokovic. He got the better of Sinner and the crowd to win his 16th Grand Slam tiebreak in a row. And that was that.
The final awaits. Again.
