Wimbledon 2013: Talking points from the Men's final day

Djokovic reacts during the Gentlemen’s Singles Wimbledon Final against Murray at the All England Club on July 7, 2013 in London, England. (Getty Images)

Djokovic lacked spark

It’s hard to believe but there was another player in the final yesterday. It was just a shame that it wasn’t the man we expected to see. Djokovic had looked imperious in his progress to the final over the fortnight.

In beating Del Potro, he had to play his absolute best to outlast the massive power of Argentine and with the feats of inhuman endurance that the Serb has shown over the last three years; almost none of us really thought that Djokovic would be too affected by that epic.

After all this was a man that beat Murray in four and a half hours and then beat Nadal in five hours at the Australian Open two years later.

But on the evidence that he gave yesterday, that match really did have an effect on Djokovic’s performance. Who would have believed that Djokovic would have hit 40 unforced errors in three sets before the match started?

Who would have believed that Djokovic only broke Murray’s serve four times when he broke him six times in the opening two sets of their US Open final. From the first set onwards it was clear that something just wasn’t right with Djokovic’s game.

For starters he was coming into the net as if this was a Wimbledon of the late 90′s. It looked like he overtly trying to finish the point as early as possible to save energy for the potential third and fourth sets, instead of engaging in too many of the long baseline rallies that has got him to number one in the world.

And by his own admission, he wasn’t completely at the races mentally either. He was a break up in both the second and third sets but surrendered his serve on both occasions relatively cheaply – once on a double fault.

He frequently engaged in angry disputes with Mohamed Lahyani for close calls and tried to pull the trigger on poor balls too many times. If Djokovic was at his best, the wait for a British champion could have gone on for another year.

But with the amazing brand of tennis the Serb has brought to the game over the last three years, we almost demand too much from the man.