Even in the heat of a Grand Slam battle, Novak Djokovic was not letting go of an opportunity to play pranks. During his second-round match in Wimbledon against Stefanos Tsitsipas, the Serb played a prank on an unsuspecting ball girl during one of the changeovers in between the sets. Talking about it after the match, Djokovic clarified that being ahead on the scoreboard did help him stay in a jovial mood, but he was not sure whether his prank was a good one.

“I guess these kinds of things surface when you’re two sets to love up, then two sets to love down”, said Djokovic in his on-court interview. “But, you know, Stefanos went to change, and so I had some spare time, and uh, and I’m sorry. I don’t know if she’s around, but I’m sorry if I scared her. It was probably [laughter] a Yeah, not that great of a joke, I guess”.

During the changeover after the second set, Djokovic asked a ball girl to help him cut off a tag on his shirt. The girl obliged with a pair of scissors, but while she was doing so, the Serb suddenly jumped back as if she had cut him.

The ball girl understandably panicked, but only for a moment, as Djokovic broke into a smile, indicating he was playing a trick on her, after which the ball girl also broke into a smile. It was all smiles on the court as well, as the Serb dominated Tsitsipas throughout the match and handed a comprehensive beatdown to the former World No.3. The Serb hit 33 winners and made only 7 unforced errors in the whole match, and saved all five break points he faced on his serve.

Djokovic was in full flow and knew he had the match in his control, which put him in such a mischievous mood even though the match had not finished. Even in his first-round match against Wu Yibing, a couple proposed in the crowd while the match was going on, and the Serb joined in on the joyous moment, looking at the couple and asking for an invitation to the wedding. This is quite in contrast to what Djokovic looked like at Roland Garros. One very indicative moment of his mind was when he snapped at the cameraman for getting too close to him during his match against Joao Fonseca, even though the Serb had a two-sets-to-love lead.

However, playing on clay and in the heat in Paris was a challenging condition for Djokovic at that stage of his career. After his three-hour, four-set win in the first round at SW19, the Serb dished out a dominant performance, which would help him conserve his energy for the later rounds, and his performance against Tsitsipas needed to be just what the doctor ordered. This win now puts him against Arthur Rinderknech in the third round. Should the Serb win, and the seedings hold, fans will get a repeat of the Novak Djokovic and Joao Fonseca battle, but this time on the Serb’s comfortable surface.