Musetti came up with some gorgeous tennis, and must be credited with Wimbledon’s version of the “best supporting actor” Oscar: best performance in a straight-sets defeat.
Yet no matter how many times Musetti came up with silky passing shots or big serves under pressure, Djokovic remained completely unconcerned.
His friend and sometime hitting partner Nick Kyrgios has observed this week that Djokovic is moving as well as ever, even though he underwent surgery on a torn knee meniscus only five weeks ago. This semifinal bore the theory out.
Djokovic was able to cover even the most far-flung parts of the court without seeming to endanger the right knee, which is hidden under a grey compression sleeve.
From the beginning of the match, Musetti’s tactic was apparently to extend the rallies as long as possible, in the hope Djokovic’s conditioning might be less perfect than usual after his knee surgery.
Musetti’s slice is a thing of beauty and if he could have hung on a little longer in the match, it had the potential to create an energy imbalance. It’s so easy for him to play, physically speaking, and forces Djokovic to supply all his own pace.
But Djokovic also had a say in the construction of points, and he kept coming forward to the net in order to keep his own workload down. When he got there, he was almost flawless, winning 15 of 16 net points in the opening set and 43 of 56 overall.
Musetti was forced to attempt ever bolder combinations in an attempt to trouble his apparently bulletproof opponent, and he came up with a couple of shots so audacious that even Djokovic had to applaud them. One was a backhand overhead that he hit with the power of a kicking horse, the other a running backhand pass that should go down as the shot of the tournament.
As you might have gathered, the Musetti backhand is a remarkable shot: powerful, supple and above all beautiful. Yet it was up against arguably the greatest backhand in tennis history: the Djokovic double-hander, which is far less picturesque but astonishingly effective. Djokovic must have hit about 600 backhands in the 224 points contested in this match, and he made only eight unforced errors off that wing.
As Djokovic told on-court interviewer Lee McKenzie after his win: “I try not to take it for granted every time I find myself on this unique court. Obviously during the match, it is business time and trying to do your work and I try to outplay my opponent.
“I am satisfied and pleased, but I don’t want to stop here – hopefully I get my hands on the trophy.”
In the BBC studio, anchorwoman Clare Balding described Djokovic’s speech as “eloquent, thoughtful, revealing, funny”. Which was certainly an improvement on his previous effort, after his win over Holger Rune four days ago, in which he had accused the fans of booing him.
In fact, they had been saying “Ruuune” – something that even Djokovic acknowledged when he replied with an elongated “Gooodnight”. With Musetti on court on Friday, the potential was there for a similar “Mooo-setti” chant, but it never eventuated. Instead, we had just the one fan who yelled out “Gooodnight” after a botched forehand from Musetti, drawing an amused response from those who had been following the story.
