Return of serve

“It’s particularly the backhand return,” says Craig O’Shannessy, the strategy analyst for Wimbledon, the Australian Open and the ATP and WTA Tours. “It’s the best backhand return in the world. That’s where it all starts. Most serves are directed to the backhand. It’s just really the simplicity of his technique. Two hands on the grip, his upper body rotates 90 degrees sideways and that’s it. O’Shannessy points out that Novak Djokovic rarely goes for broke on the return. “The big target area is deep right down the middle of the court. He’s trying to negate the impact of the serve. The server (usually) has an extra two shots off the serve where the serve still has influence, a halo effect. If you’re serving, you never want to hit a fourth shot because then you’re into an even 50-50 battle where the serve is irrelevant. Djokovic, with that return, the server is lucky if they get one extra shot. Sometimes they’re actually on defence on the very first ball after the serve. Then he has great court position. It’s huge percentages. Djokovic will hurt you everywhere, he doesn’t hit so many return winners – at Wimbledon in 2015 he only hit 11 – but he gets so many returns back into play.”

His serve

“The biggest thing is his ability to hit a spot,” O’Shannessy says. “If I was to put an empty can of balls on the court and you pick one player to hit a spot, typically it would have been Roger Federer. Today, coming into Wimbledon, I think Djokovic is that guy. Particularly the corners. He doesn’t serve a ton into the body but he serves a lot of sliders out wide in the deuce court, the patterns are like Federer, when he needs a point he will serve more out wide in the deuce court; when he has a bit of leeway he will go more down the T. In the ad court he mixes things very evenly. He has cleaned up his motion, the toss is ridiculous, it’s in the same spot every time. It’s not the hardest serve – in 2015, his average for the tournament was 117mph on first serve, 97 on the second serve and his fastest was 127. He puts a little topspin on it, there’s a little slice on it, in the ad court down the T especially, there’s a little more topspin on the ad out wide just to cover it and improve those percentages a little bit. His first serve percentage is 66.6% for the last 52 weeks, which puts him third on the Tour; only Rafael Nadal and John Isner are higher.

He strikes first

“When we think of players, we think of them in terms of styles,” O’Shannessy says. “David Ferrer’s a grinder, Lleyton Hewitt’s a counter-puncher and Federer’s an all‑court player etc. But every player on the planet is a first‑strike player – the points exist in the 0-4 shot range. Seventy per cent of all points finish in the first four shots, 20% are in the five to eight shot range and 10% are nine shots plus. Djokovic is right at that average. In the 2015 Australian Open, 69% of all points he played were nought to four; 21 were in the five to eight range and only 10% were in nine plus. We think of him playing all these long points and grinding. But again, in the 2015 Australian Open, in the nine-plus range, he only won 13 more points than he lost. He was plus 48 in five to eight and he was plus 89 in nought to four. He’s not the animal we think he is. When the points are longer, he runs, he’s elastic and his defence is fine but by far the majority of points he collects are in nought to four because of his ability to hit spots on serve – and particularly his amazing points. His advantage is much more in the nought to four than it is in the nine plus.”

A giant mentally

Henri Leconte, the former France Davis Cup player, believes Djokovic is as dominant now as Federer and Nadal were in their pomp. “He is the one and only for the moment,” says Leconte, who will be commentating for Eurosport during Wimbledon. “After winning the Davis Cup against France in 2010 he’s definitely found a way to concentrate himself and be ready for the big tournaments and grand slam play, as he is doing now.” Leconte says Djokovic’s tough upbringing, in war-torn Serbia, played a part in his mental strength. “Definitely, life has been hard and complicated for him and as a family,” Leconte says. “Definitely, I think that he went through a lot of terrible things, so now he can enjoy life. For him, if he wins it’s very important, if he loses it’s not the end of the world. He is happy in his life, he knows his body really well, mentally he can also produce and be more relaxed. When you are winning everything, when you are on top of your game and you’re the No1, you just enjoy yourself, you know what to do.”

Fitness and flexibility

Henri Leconte, who calls Novak Djokovic ‘the one and only for the moment’, plays with an oversized racket in a legends match – possibly the way to beat the Serb? Photograph: William West/AFP/Getty Images

“Djokovic’s fitness is the best in the world,” Leconte says. “The way he practises, he has a new technique, he is more flexible than anyone else. Before we used to say you need muscles, you need power; it’s not the case any more, you have to be fit, you have to be able to react as well, be light, be flexible, you have to be many things. I haven’t seen anyone as flexible as him – maybe Plastic Man. I think the most important thing to be now is to be flexible, to have the ligaments and joints flexible, too. Be capable of training as hard as possible, not losing power and be flexible. When I watch him slide, I just think I would break myself. He is capable of doing it. He is unbelievable.”