Novak Djokovic, the second seed and seven-time Wimbledon champion, was reduced to drying Centre Court’s grass with his own towel as a mishandled rain delay meant that he and his opponent, Pedro Cachín, had to wait for nearly an hour and a half until the grass was sufficiently dry.
Despite many potential distractions in his first match of the grass-court season, Djokovic began another Wimbledon title run with a solid performance as he defeated Cachín 6-3, 6-3, 7-6 (4) to reach the second round.
“Probably, but in a good way,” Djokovic said when asked if the match was the strangest Wimbledon opener of his career.
“It was definitely frustrating of course for all the crowd waiting for us to come out on the court. And us players; we both wanted to play but the conditions were not great. Still slippery under the roof.
“Once the roof was open, it was a different story. After five, 10 minutes we were out and about.
“This is the holy grail and the temple of tennis, so to say. This court is really something special. Every time I come out, I normally come out with rackets not towels.”
It had not been an ideal start for the defending champion. Djokovic served a double fault on break point in his second service game and then he returned to his seat and began to breathe deeply into his towel. From his player box, Goran Ivanisevic looked on nervously at his charge. Afterwards, Djokovic said he was just struggling to get the sun out of his eyes.
“I was trying to get rid of the shadow that I had in my eyes from the sun,” he said. “I just looked at the sun a couple of times when I was tossing the ball. I had a shadow in my eyes. That’s all it was basically. Nothing else.”
He quickly found his groove, immediately breaking back before calmly taking control. As Djokovic looked to close out the first set, drizzle began to fall over Centre Court. While play stopped on No 1 Court and elsewhere, Centre Court’s retractable roof was initiated only after Djokovic won the opener. The extra exposure to the rain meant that the courts were too damp and slippery on which to compete.
Both players waited at the entrance to the court, talking with officials and each other while testing out the grass. After Djokovic began his attempts to manually dry the courts with a small white towel, smiling as he did so, he also shouted towards his box, jokingly suggesting that his son, Stefan, should blow on the grass to dry it. Eventually, a group of men armed with leaf blowers stepped on to the court and tried to dry it before the roof was finally opened as the rain abated.
After nearly an hour and a half, play finally resumed. Upon the restart, Djokovic played a sharp final two sets. He struck 10 winners to just two unforced errors in the second set then he served well and remained patient before striking in the decisive third-set tie-break.
In his post-match press conference, Djokovic said he did not have any issues with the umpire opting to see out the set before closing the roof. “I don’t think it has gotten too much wet from that maybe extra minute and a half or something,” he said.
“I just feel it has something to do with something else. That’s probably not a question for me. We were lucky that rain stopped so we could resume play with an open roof.”
As the rest of Wimbledon’s hopefuls spent the three weeks between the French Open and Wimbledon desperately trying to gain match practice and improve on grass, Djokovic continued his usual tactics by opting not to contest any tournament as he has for a while.
He explained that he spent his time after winning his 23rd grand slam title at the French Open hiking in the Azores with his wife, Jelena, and relaxing in a secluded spot before returning to practise and retooling his game for the grass.
As he looks to find his feet in the first week with his first taste of matchplay on the surface, he can have few issues with his start.
