Novak Djokovic has had a torrid time of things over the past couple of years, ever since winning the French Open in 2016.

That victory had made the Serbian the reigning champion of all four Grand Slams but a shock loss at the following Wimbledon was the beginning of the most difficult period of his career.

An elbow injury has been the biggest problem, forcing him out of competition and requiring surgery.

Progress has been steady since the surgery and Djokovic has, game by game, begun teasing that he could get back to his best before long.

His performance at Queen's Club saw him defeat a top 5 player for the first time since 2016, even if he did bow out in the final with defeat to Marin Cilic.

And now Djokovic has arrived at Wimbledon with two victories without dropping a set as he aims to announce his return to the top of the game on its grandest stage.

The 31-year-old has a proud history at the tournament, of course - only Roger Federer, Pete Sampras, and Bjorn Borg have won it more in the open era.

None of them, however, had quite as strange a tradition as Djokovic upon winning it.

Djokovic has taken to eating the Wimbledon grass whenever he's been champion and now we have an explanation as to why he does that.

"I love tasting the grass of Wimbledon," he said. "That means that I'm in the finals and I won.

"That's kind of like a little tradition, I would say, the three times that I managed to win this great tournament.

"I've always dreamed of winning Wimbledon - I kind of constructed little trophies when I was seven years old, eight years old, of Wimbledon, raising that trophy in front of the mirror, imagining myself to be a Wimbledon champion.

"That was always one of the biggest dreams.

"When I imagined myself doing that one day, I said, 'I must eat grass' for some reason, I don't know why I picked that.

"The first time I did it, it was the sweetest dessert I'd ever tasted in my life.

"That experience hopefully I'll get to taste one more time before I finish my career."

It's safe to say that there will be no finer sign that he's back than if Djokovic ends up tasting grass again this year.

He meets British player Kyle Edmund in the next round of the tournament.