Less than a month after casting doubt over his participation at Wimbledon, Novak Djokovic is heading for the tournament as a genuine title contender.
Despite coming up just short in a 5-7, 7-6 (4), 6-3 loss to Marin Cilic in the Queen’s Club final, Djokovic produced one of his best performances since missing the second half of 2017 with an elbow injury.
Cilic saved a match point at 4-5 in the second set and then won six consecutive points from 4-1 down in the tiebreaker to level, before going on to win his second title at the Wimbledon warmup.
Djokovic was left in far more optimistic mood than when he came off the court after a French Open quarterfinal defeat to Marco Cecchinato on June 5.
“Well, I’m there,” said Djokovic, when asked if he’s back to top form, singling out his earlier win against Grigor Dimitrov “in straight sets, all straight sets until today … all in all, I think that the level of my tennis has been as good as it has been the last 12 months.”