Whether you were an exhausted Andy Murray travelling back from Paris or Roger Federer preparing for a comeback, the question was the same: how do you solve a problem like Novak Djokovic?
Murray made his way home with his world No 2 ranking firmed up ahead of the grass court season. The new listings showed that he has increased his points tally after making the French Open final — but then so did Djokovic.
The new champion of Roland Garros stands at a personal high of 16,950 points — more than 8,000 ahead of Murray and 10,000 clear of Federer in third place.
Yet Murray and Federer are the two men most likely to topple the world No 1 when it comes to Wimbledon, although their only encouragement is that the tour has shifted to its one organic surface. Federer is making his comeback on the grass in Stuttgart this week and before giving himself a clean bill of health praised the Serb’s achievement of owning all four Grand Slams at once. ‘It’s world class and really rare, he did it without any luck, it’s wonderful how he did it,’ said Federer yesterday.
The great Swiss is preparing for what might be his last realistic tilt at Wimbledon after what he describes as ‘a difficult year for me, to put it mildly’.
Explaining the priorities that led to him skipping Roland Garros, he said: ‘Now I am feeling really well. It’s been a good last three weeks, no setbacks. My back’s good again and I feel much stronger. I was pretty fragile three weeks ago.’
Federer is part of the discussion on how to stop Djokovic because it was the type of serving performance that defeated Murray in last year’s Wimbledon semi-final that would be required to stop the Serb.
Somebody serving their lights out on the grass might be one of the few ways to derail a fully firing Djokovic, whose game is perhaps the most complete there has been. At Wimbledon last year, the 6ft 8in South African Kevin Anderson had him in trouble at two sets down before losing 7-5 in a decider. Anderson has a thundering serve and if it is not someone like Murray or Federer who stops Djokovic winning a fifth successive major then it might be a Milos Raonic, or a powerful and fearless youngster like Nick Kyrgios.
Murray would have to serve better than in the Roland Garros final and he will have to contemplate whether he wants to add a big name in his coaching box, as Raonic has done with John McEnroe for the grass season. The American confirmed in Paris that he never got a call from Murray, which is no great surprise.
McEnroe, who will also be working for the BBC, added that Murray played his best clay court tennis while working with the relatively low-profile Jamie Delgado.
In his more disappointing Grand Slam finals Murray has started out looking either flat or nervous. That was hardly the case on Sunday, when he was massively pumped up to play an outstanding first set. If anything, that took too much out of him, but his mindset and tactics in the opener suggested that he had been well prepared by Delgado.
The real issue is that when Djokovic zoned in he played, as he described it himself, ‘flawless’ tennis. That will be difficult for any player or supercoach to deal with. – Daily Mail