THE CHAMPIONSHIPS

July 3, 2023

Novak Djokovic

Press Conference

N. DJOKOVIC/P. Cachin

6-3, 6-3, 7-6

THE MODERATOR: Welcome to the press conference for Novak Djokovic.

Novak, good to be back on Centre Court? Tell us how that feels.

NOVAK DJOKOVIC: Yes, yes. Great to finish the match today, as well. A little bit of strange circumstances with the roof being closed, and us delaying the match for almost an hour and a half.

But it's a feeling like no other tournament in the world of walking out on the Centre Court of Wimbledon as a defending champion, on the fresh grass. It's amazing, amazing to be back to a dream tournament, and to be able to get the first match out of the way.

It was a solid performance. I know I can always play better, but at the same time after a long clay court season, coming into Wimbledon without any preparation tournament, lead-up event, any official match on grass, it was kind of expected I still would probably not be in my 100% of the level of my tennis.

I've been in these situations before, so hopefully as the tournament progresses I'll raise my level as well.

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. The first set down, you had a minute of maybe breathing into the towel. What was going through your mind as you were embedded in your towel there?

NOVAK DJOKOVIC: I was trying to get rid of the shadow that I had in my eyes from the sun. I just looked at the sun couple of times when I was tossing the ball. I had a shadow in my eyes. That's all it was basically. Nothing else.

Q. Nerves?

NOVAK DJOKOVIC: The nerves are always there, of course, because you are playing in front of the packed stadium in one of the most important tennis courts in the world. Regardless of the fact that I've had so much experience, so many matches on that court, I still feel nerves.

I don't recall the last time I played an official tennis match anywhere, particularly in Grand Slams, where I didn't feel any nerves. It's normal to feel nerves. It's just a matter of how you adapt and obviously focus your attention on being productive to yourself.

Q. It seemed to me just before the rain interruption you called the umpire down because you seemed concerned about the state of the court. Do you think they left it a little bit too late to come out and that's what caused the problems because the grass was already wet?

NOVAK DJOKOVIC: We did talk about that. I was communicating quite a lot out of the court with supervisor and referee and chairman of the club came down as well. They were all a little bit confused because that's something that they never experienced ever since the roof was installed on the Centre Court.

It normally takes 10 to 20 minutes when the roof is closed for the air-conditioning to do its job and grass to dry and to be ready for play. That was the case with Court 1 actually. We saw that players came back after maybe 15 minutes to Court 1, and they resumed play. But we didn't and we couldn't really.

Both of us players wanted to come out. We did several times to show to the crowd that we want to play, we want to be there. But it was just too many places on the court which were too slippery and really moist. Touch the grass and your palm is completely wet.

It was very strange that for more than an hour the situation was not changing at all for better. I think they're tracking right now. I think they will probably answer this question better for you, whether it's the air-conditioning system, it was quite humid, so that didn't help.

Grass is such a sensitive surface for maintenance. It's definitely very challenging if you have, say, a minute or two more of rain than you need to.

At the same time, yeah, I think it was a good call from chair umpire, even though I did ask him. He wanted to finish the game. It was still playable, so to say. As soon as we finished the game, maintenance people from the court staff came inside and covered the court.

I don't think it has gotten too much wet from that maybe extra minute and a half or something. I just feel it has something to do with something else. That's probably not a question for me.

We were lucky that rain stopped so we could resume play with an open roof.

Q. They need to turn the air conditioning up maybe?

NOVAK DJOKOVIC: They did everything they possibly could. As I said, we communicated every few minutes. They were also very confused about what's going on. I guess they will check that. Hopefully they'll fix it because that's one of the only two courts that has roof. If it starts raining, if you can't play under the roof, that's a little bit of an issue for schedule.

Q. You looked very relaxed, you had some humor with the crowd. Is that a function of being at this stage of your career, or would you always have been that relaxed in that kind of situation?

NOVAK DJOKOVIC: Well, I mean, I wouldn't particularly say it's quite a unique feeling for me just because I've won my 23rd slam. I've always tried to have fun in particular circumstances where I guess you can't control things. Like today, we are waiting. I've had some funny rain delays in Paris, as well, New York, where I joked around.

Yeah, the first information we got when we walked off the court was, You're coming back in 10, 15 minutes. Every 10 minutes it was, In 10 minutes. Referee after third time checking the court, he said, I don't know what really I can tell you more. It's just not playable. I don't want to risk anything. I don't want you guys to be out on the court.

Then we went and checked. We had fun with it. We received the good news that they will open the roof, then wind obviously did its job and dried the court.

We came in and I tried to do something with the towel, just bring some I guess little bit of laughs and entertainment for the crowd.

Q. You chose not to play any grass court tournaments prior to Wimbledon. Now we have three weeks, before we had two. You chose the Azores.

NOVAK DJOKOVIC: I wanted to say, I was in your country, that's why I couldn't play.

Q. Could you take us through your preparations, when you started? Have you played in the Azores?

NOVAK DJOKOVIC: No, I didn't. I didn't play in Azores. I actually hiked a lot with my wife, I took some time, spent some quality time with her.

What wonderful islands you have there. It's fantastic. Quite remote, though. When we were supposed to take off, we couldn't. We were stuck because of the fog. We had to fly the next day.

Amazing, amazing food. Amazing people. Very friendly. It was great because I've been through a lot of different emotions during the clay season, particularly obviously reaching the climax in Paris, and I needed to get away, get isolated a little bit.

I had a pretty active recovery there, but still mentally felt refreshed when I came back. It was never in the plan if I would go to reach the final stages of Roland Garros that I would play any grass court event. I haven't done that in the last I think four years, and before that as well.

I just played few times actually Queen's or Eastbourne. In '17 Queen's, and I think '18. After that I haven't played lead-up events because I just felt that it's probably better for me to take an extra week of training to get used to the grass, the movement, the specifics of grass court tennis, what it requires from the player. Different tactics, different game style.

Ideally, yes, you want to play one or two or three official matches. But, yeah, just too short of a time. I was too exhausted physically, emotionally. I just needed to regroup.

It has worked the last four years. No reason to believe it cannot work again. It's a long tournament. So far I'm feeling good.