LONDON -- The first week is over at Wimbledon, and the Big Four -- Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray -- all have survived without much of a test. A look here at their first-week report card.
Novak Djokovic
It is Djokovic's unworldly return game -- solid, forceful, seemingly incapable of wilting under pressure -- that powered one of the great periods of dominance in the history of men's tennis. From 2011 through the 2016 French Open, the Serb won 11 Grand Slams and placed a vice grip on the No. 1 ranking. Then the trouble began. Starting with last year's third-round upset loss at Wimbledon, Djokovic hasn't won a single Grand Slam and has often looked out of sorts. But change might be on its way.
The first week of Wimbledon 2017 has seen Djokovic look much more like his old metronomic self. A particularly good sign? The way he has been hitting his returns. On Saturday afternoon, he teed off again and again as he stared down serves from his Latvian opponent, Ernests Gulbis, whose first-serve speed clocked in at an ear-popping average of 126 mph. Despite that kind of speed, and despite the slick Wimbledon grass that makes every return an adventure, Djokovic's replies consistently caused his counterpart to backpedal.
In three sets, Djokovic held 11 break points and always seemed to be making his opponent fight to hold serve. No single shot is more key to understanding the state of the Serb's game -- and his mind -- than his return. As good as the return has been, so has been Djokovic's start.
Grade: A
Rafael Nadal
What does a perfect Wimbledon opening week look like? Well, it looks a lot like the start of this tournament in 2017 for Nadal. It took just one look at Nadal on Centre Court in his Monday first-round match to allay any worry that he'd be overly fatigued after winning a record 10th French Open in Paris last month.
He wasn't just spry as ever; he seemed to be walking with an unerring, shoulders-back bravado that we haven't seen from the Spaniard at this tournament in years. Two words define his play so far: razor-sharp. After winning every set he played at the French, he has hasn't dropped a set at Wimbledon.
His third opponent here was 21-year-old Russian Karen Khachanov, an up-and-comer with a savvy all-court game. This was a match Nadal could easily have lost if he'd been off-kilter, especially against an opponent like Khachanov, primed for an upset breakthrough at a big tournament against a top player. But Nadal hit 41 winners, made 19 unforced errors and throttled his young rival.
A hidden key for Nadal, who still somehow remains saddled with a reputation he's not fully comfortable with full-throttle, attacking play: He won 17 of the 21 times he approached net.
Grade: A
Roger Federer
Sure, Federer won a Wimbledon warm-up tournament in Halle, Germany, and true enough, he's the surprise 2017 Australian Open champion, but it only makes sense to question how easily the Swiss would reacquaint himself with the pressurized Grand Slam environment after he chose to skip the entire European clay-court swing.
Just as he did in Australia after missing the last six months of 2016, the first few Federer matches at the All England Club have been more a matter of getting out the rust than cruising along in a state of free and easy Federer perfection. So far, so good. Federer didn't have to play more than a set and three games in his opener Tuesday, since his opponent, Alexandr Dolgopolov, surprisingly withdrew because of injury.
On Saturday, German Mischa Zverev took the seven-time Wimbledon champion to a tiebreaker in the opening set but mostly this was a routine affair. Federer stared down his opponent's aggression, handled the court's sun-baked speed, and put another high-stress match in the books. What he really wanted out of these first few days was simple: make it through and finish feeling good and fresh. Mission accomplished.
Federer always points to this tournament and emerging from the second week victorious, as the pinnacle of his year. In 2017, he made it an even bigger focus when he skipped the French and announced months ago he was fully focused on winning an eighth Wimbledon. So far, there's nothing to suggest he can't.
Grade: A-
Andy Murray
Has there ever been a No. 1 seed here, and a defending champion, for whom so little is expected? By his standards, the Brit (by way of Scotland) has had a troubling year. He has won just a single title, and by his own admission hasn't played anywhere near the level he did in 2016, when he won Wimbledon for a second time and also captured Olympic gold.
But if there's one tournament that can turn his season around it is, of course, Wimbledon, played about a half-hour from his Surrey home. He's certainly looking more comfortable than many had expected. Murray swept through his first two matches with relative ease, showing little sign of the hip injury that some speculated would cause him to pull out of Wimbledon before it began.
His opponent in the third round was dangerous. Italian all-courter Fabio Fognini is as temperamental and quixotic a player as there is on tour, and also one of the game's great ball strikers. He had beaten Murray before, including a May match at the Rome Masters. The fact that Murray fended off a quality opponent like Fognini in four tight sets bodes well for the Scotsman.
Murray did appear at times to be hurting, but it's hard to take a whole lot from that. He has a reputation for grimacing and limping around with an aghast, injured look -- and then suddenly springing to life, retrieving balls like a bloodhound and winning majors along the way. He's injured, maybe badly so, but that's not enough to count out the grinding, often irascible two-time champ.
Grade: B+