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MELBOURNE, Australia – The Novak Djokovic we’ve seen so far in Melbourne is definitely not vintage Djokovic.

You wouldn’t expect that at age 38. But you can only hope that he’s just starting his Down Under preparation slowly, and that he’ll be good to go by early next week.

Evidence from Tuesday’s practices suggests he has some way to go.

To be fair, Djokovic had just arrived – late for him, as he skipped a planned participation in the Adelaide tuneup tournament, saying he wasn’t “physically ready”.

But on Tuesday, he was struggling.

Djokovic vs Lehecka on Rod Laver

The practice was scheduled for 2:30 – 4 p.m., following Jannik Sinner and Flavio Cobolli onto Rod Laver Arena.

The two Italians ran a little long, as there was no sign of either Djokovic or practice partner Jiri Lehecka.

Eventually, the Czech player arrived, and was able to go through a full warmup on court before Djokovic arrived around 3 p.m.

Djokovic really didn’t move much. And at every opportunity he either waited for a towel to be brought to him, suggested a change of ends, or took a fair bit of time to catch his breath after hitting a dozen or so shots. He poured water over his head on one changeover – mind you, it was barely 20C on Tuesday.

Half an hour in, he even spent a long period conversing with Lehecka at the net, while he stretched.

Even taking into consideration the long trip down, it was pretty ragged.

The atmosphere was … rather funereal, with just ONE Serbian flag in evidence, The crowd had been admonished – twice, in case they forgot the first time – to … be quiet during the practice as they were “privileged” to even be there (Yeah, that was a whole another matter).

Here’s what it looked like.

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Practice No. 2 lasts 12 minutes

An hour after the first practice, Djokovic returned to small Court 10 for a second session at 5 p.m.

That one was even more concerning. It lasted just … 12 minutes.

A chunk of that time was taken up with the Serb having his neck manipulated by his trainer. He had all his knuckles and even his thumb just DUG in there. It looked pretty painful, although Djokovic didn’t react much.

He then spent some time hooked up to a contraption with a resistance band that harkened back to the days of Marion Bartoli and her mad-scientist father-coach, Walter.

He discussed a few issues with his team. And then he hit a few serves and was fed a few “plus-ones”.

And, suddenly, someone threw a hoodie to him and he just packed up.

He spend about as much time making the gathered fans happy with autographs and selfies as he did actually doing any tennising.

The Australian Open starts in five days, and it’s best-of-sets. And Djokovic has played just two tournaments since the US Open and nothing for the last two months.

Let’s hope that today’s session, scheduled for 12:30 p.m. with Brisbane champion Daniil Medvedev, goes a lot better.