Wimbledon: Alexei Popyrin puts up gallant fight against Novak Djokovic

Novak Djokovic says tennis is a global sport but it is not accessible. ‘On a club level, tennis is endangered’.

Serbia's Novak Djokovic celebrates. Picture: AFP

Roger Federer is swanning around Wimbledon in a suit. Scrubs up all right for an old bloke. When Federer speaks, even the flowers are listening, and he has a question for every athlete. Are you proud of HOW you play?

Welcome to Saturday at the All England Club. Come on in. Alex de Minaur is about to face a slippery French opponent in Lucas Pouille, on an even slipperier court because it’s been hosing down in London. An off-Broadway atmosphere is expected given the World No.9 is again being dispatched to a minor enclosure, but then the off-Broadway fixture itself is called off. Pouille withdraws with an abdominal injury and the Australian is through to a fourth-round clash with Frenchman Arthur Fils. On the horizon is a quarter-final against big, bad Novak Djokovic.

Can de Minaur be proud of how he plays? Certainly. He zips around like a cattle dog herding sheep. He’s all-in, all the time, on Broadway, off Broadway, every shot, every point, every game, every set, every match, every round, every tournament, every city, every day of every year. Nobody on tour likes playing against him. He never beats himself. He runs quicker than Speedy Gonzales in Looney Tunes and refuses to go away. You have to put him away. Which ain’t easy.

Rod Laver and Ken Rosewall are at Wimbledon, cheerfully attending a barbecue together the other night, and like the golden oldies, de Minaur goes about his business in a uniquely Australian way. He’s up and at ’em. He goes and gets ’em. He has a crack. He rushes the net behind full-blooded groundstrokes and exudes a general air of hustle and bustle. At 69kg, he’s forever punching above his weight. During his inspired run to the quarter-finals at this year’s French Open, he screamed like a madman to nobody in particular, “I love this!” Unwavering affection for his chosen vocation is at the heart of his rise. Makes you think if you have a bit of talent at something, and if you want it desperately and sincerely enough, success is yours for the taking.

“As I’ve said for a long time, this is where I’ve wanted to be,” de Minaur says. “The first week is about doing anything you can to stay alive, right? Once you’re able to get through that first week, I feel like it’s a completely new tournament. It’s when you know everything starts to click. You start to feel more comfortable with the conditions, the atmosphere, the balls, your tennis, your game itself. It’s when you’ve got to bring your A game because you’re getting to the deep end of these tournaments and playing the best players in the world.”

Alex De Minaur goes about his business in a uniquely Australian way. Picture: Glyn Kirk/AFP

De Minaur says of Fils: “He’s coming with a lot of confidence. He’s got a big game, big groundstrokes. He’s going to be very tricky. He’s got a great serve and he’s an overall great athlete.”

Fils has shot up world rankings to No.34. The 20-year-old beat de Minaur in straight sets at Barcelona in April.

“We played on clay,” Fils says. “It’s completely different. Alex is one of the best on this surface. It’s not going to be easy. He’s one of the fastest guys I know. It’s like if I want to hit one winner, I will have to hit three winners against him. Everyone knows that he’s fast, but he’s also super clever on the court. He’s doing unbelievably since the start of the year. It’s going to be very tough.”

Federer is milling about once more for Australian Alexei Popyrin’s match against Djokovic. I think he’s sleeping here at the club. Eight-times champions should be allowed to. Sachin Tendulkar, Ben Stokes, Joe Root, Pep Guardiola, Roy Hodgson, Jayne Torvill, Christopher Dean and Sandy Lyle are among the dignitaries in attendance. How does Popyrin play in front of his well-heeled audience? From a great height, for starters. He’s 196cm. A tall Poppy.

Djokovic takes two enormous bags onto Centre Court. Like he’s expecting to be there for a week. Popyrin wins the first set. Hundreds of seats are empty. The atmosphere is strangely subdued because folks have nicked off to watch England’s Euro quarter-final against Switzerland on television. When the football goes to a penalty shootout, Djokovic pretends to kick a football. Popyrin pretends to save it. England wins, the stands are full again and the mood becomes more vibrant. Djokovic prevails 4-6 6-3 6-4 7-6 (7/3) and plays his racquet like a small violin towards Australian supporters who have heckled him for most of the evening.

Australia's Alexei Popyrin salutes the crowd as he leaves Centre Court after loosing against Serbia's Novak Djokovic. Picture: AFP

How does Popyrin play? With swagger. With strut. With two of the weapons you need to succeed in this demolition era of tennis. His serve and forehand are explosive enough to go deep at majors. His backhand and returns of serve, however, are occasionally back on the Challenger Tour. It’s wham-bam tennis, with 186 of the 246 points lasting just four strokes or less. Which is good for Djokovic’s bung knee as Tendulkar applauds politely from beneath a tilted boater hat.

“Tough match,” Djokovic says. “I didn’t expect anything less from Alexei. I knew he was going to approach the match with confidence and self-belief. With that serve and powerful forehand, he was going to be dangerous. He was the better player in the first set.

“Then I stepped it up. The fourth set was anybody’s game. Mentally, just a very challenging match. I think I’ve done well in that regard. The tie-break was one of the best tie-breaks I’ve played.”

Djokovic is in the mood for a lengthy post-match chat. “You guys have been asking a lot of players whether best-of-five sets should be turned into best-of-three in the slams,” he says. “I don’t think so. I think they should stay best-of-five. The only thing that I’m maybe thinking is that it could be good to consider the opening rounds going best-of-three. Then move into the hybrid of best-of-five from the fourth rounds or quarters. I don’t know. That’s just me, my thinking. I think best-of-five, particularly in the last three or four rounds of a slam, you need to keep.”

Professional tennis revolves around the majors. There isn’t the same global interest in regular tour events. “We have to figure out how to attract a young audience,” Djokovic says.

“Tennis is in a good place but at the same time, when we look at Formula 1 and what they’ve done in terms of marketing and growth of the sport, in terms of their races around the world and how popular they are, we need to do a better job on our respective tours.”

He adds: “And we need to grow the number of players that live from this sport. Very rarely do I see in the media that you guys are writing about the fact that we have only 350 or 400 players, both men, women, singles, doubles, across the board, who live from this sport on this planet. That’s deeply concerning for me.

“We talk about the grand slam winner. But what about the base level? I think we’re still doing a very poor job there. Very poor. Tennis is a very global sport and it’s loved by millions of children that pick up a racquet and want to play. But we don’t make it accessible. We don’t make it so affordable. On a club level, tennis is endangered.”