Wounded Djokovic out to challenge resurgent Alcaraz, top-ranked Sinner

Mumbai: A resurgent defending champion fresh off another major success. A world No.1 with a newly acquired title-winning taste for grass. A wounded seven-time winner who is a master at turning moments of turbulence into triumph.

That’s Carlos Alcaraz, Jannik Sinner and Novak Djokovic — the men leading this year’s Wimbledon field with contrasting and captivating storylines each. Collectively the trio — two emerging superstars and one established serial winner — has headlined the three Grand Slams this season. Plenty, however, has changed since the Australian Open in January and last month’s French Open, which has rewritten the order and rejigged the odds of these top three seeds at the All England Club.

Let’s catch up, then. First with Djokovic, because around a month ago at Roland Garros no one thought he’d even turn up at Wimbledon. Perhaps other than fellow tennis pro Taylor Fritz and skier Lindsey Vonn, two Americans who gave the Serb hope.

When Djokovic slipped during the fourth round of the French Open, injured his knee and withdrew from his quarter-final, that term would’ve been the farthest on his mind. Djokovic has, in the past, resisted going under the knife for as long as his body could do without it. This time, the 37-year-old chose to dive right into surgery, hoping for the knee to respond well and quick in the “unpredictable” rehab. It helped that Fritz, who had been through similar issues with a torn meniscus in 2021 and jumped right back up from French Open to Wimbledon, and Vonn assured him it was possible.

Anything is possible anyway with the 24-time Slam champion. And so, less than a month after a knee surgery, Djokovic is back feeling upbeat on the courts on which he has won seven times. He beat Daniil Medvedev in an exhibition match on Saturday, and came out “pain free” from “very intense” practice sessions hitting with top players in the last few days.

These GOATs of modern tennis are champions of adversity — Rafael Nadal won the 2022 French Open effectively playing on one foot, remember? — and Djokovic, the leader of that pack, isn’t willing to settle for anything less.

“I didn’t come here to play a few rounds and prove to myself and others that I can compete in one or two matches,” Djokovic said at SW19. “I really want to go for the title.”

The title that Alcaraz effectively snatched away from his grasp last year. The four-time defending champion was halted in a scintillating five-set final by a Spaniard whom Djokovic then thought would trouble him “only on clay or hard courts, not on grass”. A year on, Alcaraz has Slams across all those surfaces, with an opportunity to join a select club of five men — Rod Laver, Bjorn Borg, Nadal, Federer and Djokovic — to have captured the French Open and Wimbledon in the same season.

Between the highs of last Wimbledon and this French Open, Alcaraz has had to overcome a testing phase of not feeling himself on court, drop in form and injury roadblocks. The French Open victory, thus, meant that much more for the 21-year-old who will now have to defend a title that came seemingly out of the blue on arguably his least rewarding surface.

Giving company in his half of the draw is Sinner, seeded top for the first time in a Slam. The Australian Open champion lost to Alcaraz in the Paris semi-final but, with a 38-3 win-loss record so far, he is the season’s standout player and, unsurprisingly, the current world No.1.

The Italian has gradually felt more at home on the grass courts of London, making the quarters in 2022 and semis last year while losing to Djokovic on both occasions. This year, Sinner comes in with his first title on grass in Halle, and without any of the physical doubts leading up to Paris.

“Last week for me was an important week,” Sinner said of his Halle win. “Last year I played semis here, so in my mind I know that I can play also some good tennis on this surface.”