The previous time Murray and Djokovic practiced together was in September at the Laver Cup, where they were competing for Team Europe. Before that, Murray reckons it was in Australia in 2019, when a chronic hip injury had gotten so bad it led to his tearful suggestion that his career might be finished.
This session, Murray explained to reporters Saturday, felt a bit different.
“I did well in the practice,” he said slowly, as if he surprised himself.
The practice session was a fitting prelude to Wimbledon, where the second-seeded Djokovic will try to extend his Open era men’s record with his 24th Grand Slam championship and look to match Roger Federer’s mark of eight men’s singles titles here. Because the All England Club adheres to ATP (and WTA) rankings, Carlos Alcaraz is the No. 1 seed. But Djokovic has won the past four titles here and, despite not having played an official match since he won the French Open last month, he enters Monday’s first-round bout with Argentina’s Pedro Cachin as the tournament’s overwhelming favorite the same way the ocean is overwhelmingly wet.
Murray, ranked 40th, is not seeded. But he does hold special value as a hitting partner in being the only one of 128 contenders in the men’s draw to have defeated Djokovic on a grass court. That rarest of occurrences happened 10 years ago, when Murray won the second of his three Grand Slam titles, two of which have come at Wimbledon.
Saturday’s practice prompted renewed thoughts, both of Djokovic’s dominance and an appreciation for Murray’s ability to disrupt the era of the “Big Three.” It also introduced the thought that, among all the great, lasting twosomes in tennis — Venus and Serena Williams, Andre Agassi and Pete Sampras, Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova, Federer and Rafael Nadal — the most appropriate partner for a desperately earnest, unfathomably disciplined Serb could be a deadpan Scot with a metal hip.
By the numbers, Djokovic’s greatest rival is Nadal, whom he has played a record 59 times, winning 30 against 29 losses (though Nadal has a 5-4 edge in major finals). But after Murray and Djokovic practiced Saturday, they spoke to reporters at back-to-back news conferences that displayed the spectrum of existence among world-class tennis players as well as any pairing ever has.
Separated by one inch in height and seven days in age, the 36-year-olds were the others in the Federer-or-Nadal fever that defined the past two decades in men’s tennis. They found friendship — as well as a hitting partner — in each other early on, even as it was rather uncommon to do so: Murray said he would occasionally practice with Nadal but didn’t practice with Federer after 2007. Nadal and Djokovic hardly ever practiced, Murray said.
As a congenial relationship continued, their paths diverged, in part because of chronic hip issues for Murray that required two surgeries, the latter of which permanently altered his perspective.
His pre-Wimbledon news conference, as are nearly all of his pre-Grand Slam news conferences nowadays, centered around the topic of his eventual retirement.
Murray said he does have an end date in mind, and though it isn’t definitive, the mere act of telling himself his career won’t last forever is a necessity. He otherwise couldn’t put himself through the hours of pounding tennis, nor the travel schedule that separates him from his family, nor the extraordinary daily measures he takes to keep his body in shape.
“Yeah, it’s a bit of that,” said Murray, who opens Tuesday against British wild card Ryan Peniston. “I started to think about it actually during the Australian Open this year, after the matches I was having. It was like, ‘This maybe isn’t that good for me long term to be playing those sorts of matches.’ I could keep doing that probably, I don’t know, until the hip finishes. I don’t really want to do that.”
It is a relatable thought, that hard things are doable because they don’t last forever. That sentiment was characteristic of Murray’s defining trait during the brief stint when the Big Three was a Big Four. Murray endeared himself to fans because he reminded them what he, Nadal, Federer and Djokovic were doing was wildly difficult. Their feats seemed more awesome because of it.
Yet if Murray carried with him Saturday the weighty reminder that every era comes to an end, Djokovic did the opposite. His words and demeanor, light and fresh as the summer breeze outside, gave the impression that he could do this stuff forever.
Asked if Alcaraz’s lightning-quick climb through the rankings invigorates him at a time when his chief rivals are retired (Federer) or chronically injured (Nadal), Djokovic said, “Well, there’s always someone out there.” Asked if he has experienced a dip in motivation after claiming the record for Grand Slam men’s singles titles, Djokovic said: “So far, there’s still the drive. A few days after Roland Garros, I was already thinking about preparation for grass and what needs to be done.”
Djokovic said he still hungers “for more Grand Slams, more achievement in tennis” — an unimaginable drive that is his defining trait among his peers. On Saturday, nothing put that in starker relief than contrasting him with Murray, two nights before the start of a tournament that means so much to them both.
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