There was a familiar pitch to the noise from the crowd as Novak Djokovic emerged at Melbourne Park on Friday to walk himself through the largely ceremonial motions of a 10th Australian Open semi-final victory. There is a distinctive Djokovic sound these days: not exactly cheers or jeers but a kind of mixed static, a fuzz of generalised feelings, event glamour, gawp energy.
Some hostile shouts from the bleachers drew a look of slight dismay across that imperial visage, visible only in TV closeup. And what does Djokovic look like these days? Physically unchanged for a start, still the same vision of extreme hyper-elastic conditioning. He still looks a bit like a tennis ball, with that immaculate fuzz-cut hair, the fine straight nose, the mischievous eyes.
