For 17-time Slam champ Novak Djokovic, there's no place like Melbourne

Editor's Note: Djokovic opened his quest for a ninth title on Monday evening by brushing aside Jeremy Chardy, 6-3, 6-1, 6-2, in one hour and 31 minutes on Rod Laver Arena. The 33-year-old did not face a break point and struck 41 winners to just 11 unforced errors in securing his 15th consecutive Australian Open match win.

“Home-court advantage” was the phrase Tennis Channel analyst Martina Navratilova used Sunday night on Tennis Channel Live to describe the exceptional comfort eight-time Australian Open champion Novak Djokovic feels in Melbourne.

Navratilova knows this feeling very well. What Djokovic has in Melbourne, she had at the All England Club, winning the Wimbledon singles nine times. Win a title once and it’s darn good. Win twice and you double that happy feeling. Go beyond and you’re in multiplier territory. Are Djokovic’s eight titles here 64 times more valuable than those who’ve never won the Australian Open?

This is something more than mere familiarity. All players experience the old home vibe when they return to an event and check in to familiar hotels, connect with local friends, eat at cozy restaurants. But when the results vary, it’s natural to question the many rituals that define a trip to a major. Call it the world of uncertainty; a ceaseless quest to concoct the right mix.

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But when you win repeatedly like Djokovic, there’s a sense that every step surely paves the golden path. Add to this the exceptional discipline Djokovic already brings, from what he drinks to what he eats, to off-court stretches to occasional treks he takes to places like the Melbourne Botanical Gardens. A Harvard MBA would be envious at how well Djokovic organizes himself for battle.

From there, the tennis—Djokovic’s precision-based baseline game is a perfect fit for the Australian Open’s hard courts, as surely as Rafael Nadal at Roland Garros, Roger Federer at Wimbledon.

So the home-court advantage is vivid. Anyone who challenges Djokovic is well aware of his aura, conveyed by memories of him raising the Norman Brookes Challenge Cup a record eight times. The other 127 men in the draw have arrived here with questions—not just the ones they hope to ask of one another, but those they ask of themselves. Which rituals work? How long to practice? Will a lucky restaurant surface?

For all the time coaches, players and others celebrate the process, the open secret in a sport is that nothing validates the process than a successful outcome. Let the others grapple with the questions. Novak Djokovic has long been the man with the answers.