Wimbledon 2022: 3 things that stood out in Novak Djokovic's SF win over Cameron Norrie

Top seed Novak Djokovic of Serbia beat Cameron Norrie of Great Britain 2-6, 6-3, 6-2, 6-4 on Friday to move into his eighth Wimbledon final. He will face Nick Kyrgios of Australia, a player he has never beaten, in the final on Sunday.

Djokovic has now won 27 consecutive matches on the hallowed Centre Court at Wimbledon and is one win away from winning his seventh title. Friday’s semifinal lasted for two hours and 35 minutes as the 35-year-old Serb yet again bounced back from an ordinary start to prevail in the end.

On that note, let’s take a look at three factors that stood out in the match:

#1 Cameron Norrie won the opening set as an error-prone Novak Djokovic struggled to find his rhythm:

Norrie got off to a great start by breaking Djokovic in the very first game of the match. However, Djokovic broke back in the subsequent game and then held his serve to lead 2-1. The Brit then won five consecutive games to win the set, breaking Djokovic two more times in the process.

Djokovic, quite uncharacteristically, committed a lot of unforced errors in the first set. He avoided engaging in prolonged crosscourt exchanges with Norrie with his backhand and opted for the down-the-line backhand to Norrie’s backhand more frequently. However, Norrie hit his backhands well and did not allow Djokovic to win points through his double-hander.

Norrie’s first-serve ratio was a dismal 45% in the first set, but Djokovic failed to take advantage of that. The Serb was able to win only 20% of points on his second serve and committed 12 unforced errors in the first set.

#2 Novak Djokovic capitalized on a few errors from Norrie to come back into the match:

Cameron Norrie made a few costly mistakes in the seond set to allow Novak Djokovic to bounce back

Both players succeeded in holding their respective serves for the first seven games of the second set. With Djokovic leading 4-3, Norrie hit what seemed to be a straightforward volley wide and then could not execute a drop shot properly to gift the Serb a couple of points. It also allowed Djokovic to get an elusive break to serve out the second set.

Norrie’s mounting errors proved to be the turning point of the match as Djokovic never looked back after that. Moreover, the Serb was a lot more clinical from the second set onwards and did not allow the Brit to win easy points by committing unforced errors at regular intervals. Norrie, meanwhile, started leaking unforced errors more frequently as the match progressed.

#3 Novak Djokovic used the momentum to win the next two sets:

Djokovic once again broke Norrie in the first game of the third set and then held his serve to race to a 2-0 lead. By then, the momentum had swung in the Serb’s favor and he captilaized on that by breaking Norrie for the second time in the third set. He never lost his serve in the set either and managed to win it comfortably.

The pattern was repeated in the fourth set as well, as Djokovic once again broke Norrie in the first game. He then held his serve and managed to maintain his lead for the remainder of the match. Novak Djokovic demonstrated his net-skills by playing quite a few effective approach shots and then finishing with volley winners throughout the match.

He also played the drop shot really well to drag Norrie into the net at regular intervals. Norrie tried to put pressure on Djokovic’s backhand with his crosscourt forehand with a fair amount of top spin and also rushed the net more frequently in the last set, but the Serb’s defense was rock-solid on most occasions.

All the while, Djokovic kept coming up with aces at regular intervals and finished the match with 13 of them. He was also more disciplined with his groundstrokes after the first set and committed a total of 16 unforced errors in the last three sets. Norrie, in comparison, committed 27 during the same period. Djokovic was also ahead in terms of winners and finished the match, with 38 of them against Norrie’s 33.