Coco Gauff’s former coach says Novak Djokovic did something he’d ‘never seen’ him do before during Alex de Minaur win

Brad Gilbert admits he saw Novak Djokovic do something he’d never seen before in yesterday’s Wimbledon win over Alex de Minaur.

It was far from the best start for the Serbian, who found himself a set down in little over half an hour.

In fact, the speed with which he fell into a one-set deficit made history, with De Minaur winning a set against Djokovic like never before.

Alas, the legendary champion turned things around, as he has done so often throughout his illustrious career.

That did not stop Gilbert from expressing his intrigue in the manner of Novak Djokovic’s slow start.

Brad Gilbert left stunned by Novak Djokovic

Speaking to ESPN, Gilbert did not hold back in his assessment of Djokovic’s display vs Alex de Minaur.

He started by admitting: ‘I’ve never seen Novak in so many slicing points, slice to slice on the backhand. Normally, he’ll get out of that. On this rally, after a couple, he said Enough with that. Then he starts dictating a little bit more and watch him open up on these two forehands, take the lungs out a little bit, and that is an unbelievable shot from below the net.’

He did praise the way in which the 38-year-old managed to turn things around though, continuing: ’But I really felt like Novak. You know, I guess in golf, I don’t play golf, but every once in a while, you duck hook one on the first tee, and you ask for a mulligan, or you get, you know, you lose all your chips in the first hand, you got to get a re-buy-in. That’s exactly what Novak did. He knuckled down at the end of the first set.

‘I thought, you know, in the first set, he started aimlessly coming in a little bit. He was diving. He was just doing things uncharacteristic, but at 38 years young, he still has amazing resilience to be able to turn things around.’

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Gilbert, who until last year was Coco Gauff’s coach, then reacted to Djokovic reaching his 16th Wimbledon quarter-final, before previewing his next match: ’First of all, I just had to process that for a second, so that’s almost 16 years of quarter-finals. That sounds like, you know, Chrissy, minus a quarter, she’d be semis. But that’s just ridiculous.

‘But Cobolli reminds me a lot of Musetti last year, who had his breakout here, getting to the semis, returning well and moving well, making opponents play an extra ball.

‘I was very impressed with how he played today. Did not think that he was at that level. It’s great to see somebody blossoming on a surface that you haven’t seen before.’

Was Novak Djokovic injured during his Alex de Minaur match?

Given how poorly he began the match, many started to theorise that Djokovic might have been carrying some kind of injury.

After all, he had cruised through the first three rounds at Wimbledon, and now suddenly just could not deal with De Minaur at all.

This notion was effectively ratified mid-way through the match, when the 24-time Grand Slam champion was pictured shirtless, icing his stomach and desperately trying to suck as much air in as possible.

He then squatted down into the most impossible stretching position during a changeover.

Photo by ADRIAN DENNIS/AFP via Getty Images

This, for many, confirmed some kind of ailment, yet Djokovic sought to dispel that rumour in his post-match interview.

He simply stated: ‘It was all good. I was just trying to manage the breathing. After 30-plus shots rallies from the back of the court, you need a breather, and you don’t have much time.’

Djokovic’s injury update confused many, but perhaps it was just a bad start; one that he will hope to rectify on Wednesday.

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