Something’s crook – Djoker acts ill then says he’s fine

Novak Djokovic behaved like illness was bugging him. He thrashed Adrian Mannarino and then said it wasn’t an issue. Which one’s the truth?

Adrian Mannarino hung up the phone on Ben Shelton. Novak Djokovic hung up the phone on Mannarino. Apologies for the obsession with hang-up-the-phone celebrations. I’ll shut up about them now.

How often has Djokovic looked weak, wounded, vexed and vulnerable in week one of the Australian Open – only to win it? He’s a freak at picking the right time to peak. Before his match against Mannarino, I heard a lady solemnly telling her friends at the George St Cafe in East Melbourne, “Oh, I don’t know about Novak this year. He doesn’t look at his best.”

Her mates nodded at her sage wisdom. Then they shuffled off to watch Djokovic flog Mannarino 6-0 6-0 6-3 to move into the ­quarter-finals at Melbourne Park. He didn’t look too bad.

Well, he was coughing, spluttering, sneezing and wheezing. Rasping and gasping. Sweat bands couldn’t keep up with the sweat glands for a while there. Leading 6-0 2-0, he doubled over, seemingly running on empty, dry-retching. Flu-like symptoms? Covid symptoms for the famous anti-vaxxer? He was stumbling away from points as if totally and utterly knackered.

He said before the tournament he was crook and he looked it on Sunday. Every second bloke in Melbourne appears to have a twirly moustache and a head cold.

Then in complete contradiction to his on-court behaviour, Djokovic said: “I wasn’t thinking about it. I was going with the flow and the last couple of days has been really, really good. It’s going in a positive direction health-wise, tennis-wise, so I’m really, really pleased with where I am at the moment. You always want to be efficient, right? You always want to finish the job as soon as possible in straight sets. It’s not always possible because you’re, as the tournament progresses, you’re playing tougher opponents.

“Best of five, you never know what is going to happen but I played great from the first to the last point.”

Every day is hug-a-tree day for Djokovic. Best quotes of the Open? “I love every corner of the Botanical Gardens,” he said. “There’s one particular tree that I’ve been having a special relationship with, so to say, in the last 15 years. I think it’s an incredible treasure for Melbourne to have such a park and nature in the middle of the city. That particular tree, I cannot reveal which one.

“I’ll try to keep it discreet for myself when I’m there to have my own time. I like to ground myself and connect with that old friend. I got connected with that tree. I just always liked it. I liked its roots and the trunks and branches and everything. So I started climbing it years ago. That’s it. I just have a connection.”

He started climbing it? I would pay good money to be walking through the Botanical Gardens and, look! Is it a bird? Is it a plane? It’s one of the world’s all-time greatest sportsmen legging it up his favourite tree like Gollum in Lord of the Rings. He’s either young at heart, an old soul or a bit of both. Mannarino is a deft, intelligent, cat-and-mouse, poking, prodding, probing magician of a player but Djokovic yet again eats shoots and leaves a trail of clean down-the-line backhands, pinpoint serves and rainbow forehands.

Something’s crook. Either he was bunging it on during his match or telling fibs after it. If trees are good for the soul, flogging Mannarino was bloody wonderful for his momentum. He looked stiffer than a Norfolk Island pine in the first game, stretching his neck after dishing up two double faults, but he wasn’t gullible enough to fall for Mannarino’s touchy-feely, sleight-of-hand, rope-a-dope routine. The Frenchman doesn’t so much hit a ball as nudge it in the right direction. He lives off a foe’s errors but Djokovic was making few. He received a prolonged, piss-taking standing ovation when he finally got on the scoreboard at 1-1 in the third set. The applause was rapturous. As if he’d won an AFL grand final. Kicked home the winner in a Melbourne Cup. Cured the common cold.

Djokovic has earned the right to talk and act like the king. He admits to doing so before he’d climbed the tree on the world rankings – and knows the bravado didn’t go down well with everyone. If anyone.

Serbia's Novak Djokovic blows his nose during a break Picture: AFP

“Certainly (Roger) Federer didn’t like the way I was behaving at the beginning,” Djokovic said. “It didn’t sit with him well. I don’t know about the others. I guess I wasn’t the favourite type of guy to some of the top guys because I was not afraid to say that I wanted to be the best player in the world. I was kind of – not kind of – I was confident and I felt like I had the game to back it up. I never, ever lacked respect. Whenever I started a match or finished the match, I would always greet the opponent. Always acknowledge. Respect is something that I was taught that needs to be present regardless of what is happening.

“On the court a lot of things can happen in a kind of heat of a battle. It was very long time ago now, 20 years since I made my first debut, I think, on the professional tour. It’s really hard to say who liked me more or less. I think I named one, so I don’t know. I can’t recall others.”

The anti-Djokovic sentiment in the locker room was led by, but not restricted to, Federer. “It was fuelling me even more,” the Serb said. “I mean, if I made a mistake, I would admit it and say I made a mistake and raise my hand. Apologise or whatever. But if the criticism came with no particular reason, then I would just keep going on the kind of direction that I chose, and that’s it. I knew then and I know today that you can’t have everyone liking you, who you are, how you play, how you behave, what you talk about. It’s normal. We’re all different. We all have different preferences.”