THE CHAMPIONSHIPS

July 6, 2024

Novak Djokovic

Press Conference

N. DJOKOVIC/A. Popyrin

4-6, 6-3, 6-4, 7-6

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. I don't know if I've ever seen a penalty shootout celebrated on a tennis court like that. How aware were you of what was going on in the match? Do you think it's strange that people technically cannot watch the football at Wimbledon?

NOVAK DJOKOVIC: Well, as I said on the court, I think you could feel, kind of sense the energy of the stadium, that everyone was wondering what the result is. I was expecting it to come. If England was to score or to win, a huge eruption of the positive emotions and cheering would come from the stadium, which happened. I assume that England won at that point.

Then, yeah, we kind of, Popyrin and I, did a little fun mocking of shooting a penalty. He kind of reached for it. It was a fun moment. I think then we could actually focus, along with the crowd, on the tennis match.

It was a big match, obviously. It happened in the middle of our match when it started. Once the roof was closed, obviously the atmosphere became even more loud and electric, as it always is.

As for your second question regarding the airing of football on the TV, I'm surprised as well. I don't know if it was aired or not. But I was hearing somebody all the way up in one of the maybe press commentary booths, there was quite a bit of noise. I guess that person was following closely what was happening in the penalty shootout.

When England was scoring, he shouted. Then the whole section of the stadium kind of laughed. It was going kind of for few minutes. Obviously when they won, it was a big eruption, so...

Yeah, good for them.

Q. You haven't had the situation in this tournament yet, but what do you make of five-set matches and the keys to thriving in them and the importance to the game?

NOVAK DJOKOVIC: Well, I mean, five-set matches, nowadays you can only see them in Grand Slams, right? That's what I guess excites both players and the crowd. Most of the people love to see it. We as players like to play it. Maybe not that often.

I think at times, to see an exciting five-set match, like, for example, the one that I can highlight, it was one of the most exciting matches I've ever played in my life, the five-setter against Federer here in finals of Wimbledon 2019. I think that was the first year they introduced a 12-all tiebreak. We used it right away the first year in the final. So it was an incredible match with some match points saved.

If that match was best-of-three, yes, I was two sets to one up, I think it would be quite different, because he was the better player. When you know, even if you're two sets to love or one down, like Rune was here today, who is my next opponent, he was two sets to love down, still he's not out, he can still win.

I think if you're physically fitter I guess than your opponent or have more experience than your opponent in best-of-five, it still gives you a sense of confidence and tranquility, even though you're two sets to love down. Of course, there is a sense of urgency. You still feel like there's still quite a lot of time for me to kind of bounce back.

Throughout my career, I've had quite a few matches where I was coming back from two sets to love or two sets to one down. Winning record mostly, positive score in a fifth setter.

I enjoyed those throughout my career. I think they're an important aspect of the history and of the future, as well, of the sport.

I would support it, particularly in the latter stages of the Grand Slam. I've seen there's been quite a lot of debate on that. You guys have been asking a lot of players whether the best-of-five should be turned into best-of-three in the slams. I don't think so. I think they should stay best-of-five.

The only thing that I'm maybe thinking it could be good to consider is the opening rounds that could go best-of-three, then you move into the hybrid of best-of-fives from the fourth rounds or quarters. I don't know. That's just me, my thinking.

I think best-of-five, particularly in the last three or four rounds of a slam, you need to keep.

But in terms of innovation in tennis, in our sport, I think it's necessary. I think we have to, other than slams, figure out how to attract young audience. I think tennis, from one hand, is in a good place, but at the same time when we look at Formula 1, for example, and what they have done in terms of marketing, in terms of growth of the sport, in terms of the races around the world and how popular they are, I think we need to do a better job on our respective tours.

The Grand Slams are always going to do well. I think our tours need to do better. And we are lucky to be very historic and very global sport. But I think one of the studies that was done by PTPA three, four years ago, showed that tennis is the third or fourth most popular sport in the world, most watched sport in the world, along with cricket. Number one is obviously football, or soccer as you call it in States. Second one is basketball. Then it's tennis and cricket.

But tennis is number 9 or 10 on the list of all sports in terms of using its popularity, commercializing or capitalizing on that.

I think there is a huge space for growth. That we are quite fractioned as a sport. So there's quite a bit of things I think for us to really collectively look at and try to improve it.

And we need to grow the number of players that live from this sport. Very rarely do I see in the media that you guys are writing about the fact that you have only 350 or 400 players, both men, women, singles, doubles, across the board who live from this sport on this planet. That's for me deeply concerning.

Yes, we talk about the Grand Slam winner wins this or that. Then it's always the focus on the grand prize. But what about the base level? I think we are still doing a very poor job there, very poor job. Tennis is a very global sport and it's loved by millions of children that pick up a racquet and want to play. But we don't make it accessible. We don't make it so affordable. Especially in countries like mine that doesn't have a strong federation, that has Grand Slam or history or big budgets.

I think collectively we all have to come together and understand how to maintain the sport's, let's say, foundation or create a new foundation, a cornerstone of really what tennis is about, which is the base level, right, the club level.

Now we have the paddle or padel, as you call it in the States, that is growing and emerging. People kind of have fun with it and say, Yeah, but tennis is tennis.

Tennis is the king or queen of all the racquet sports, that's true. But on a club level, tennis is endangered. If we don't do something about it, as I said, globally or collectively, paddle, pickle ball in States, they're going to convert all the tennis clubs into paddle and pickle ball because it's just more economical.

You have one tennis court. You can build three paddle courts on one tennis court. You do the simple math. It's just much more financially viable for an owner of a club to have those courts.

Those are just some of the things I wanted to share. In the grand scheme of things, I feel like we need to address all of these, I feel like, challenges and issues for us really. They have been out there for a while, but I don't think we have been addressing them in a proper way.

Q. Next up Holger Rune. How can you describe your relationship with him?

NOVAK DJOKOVIC: I actually get along very well with him. He's a very nice guy. Always has been to me and to my team, and vice versa. I always try to be available to him for any practice or advice or guidance or anything like that.

I remember him since he was quite young. He appeared I think in south of France, Monaco, where I was based, been training. He was in Mouratoglou. We trained a lot on different surfaces, spent some time.

His mother, his sister, they all been quite nice to us. I like our relationship. I think we get along very well. We respect each other. I think we have quite similar styles of tennis.

But when it comes to playing on the court and competing, obviously we both have that fire. I'm sure that on Monday we'll see a lot of fireworks on the court. He's a spectacular player, no doubt. He loves the big stage, loves playing on grass. I think he's very, very tricky opponent.

It's going to take my best tennis to win.

Q. Talking about Holger Rune. You've been knowing him for a while. What section of his game do you think he developed the most?

NOVAK DJOKOVIC: I think he has always had a very good working ethics. He's been a very dedicated guy. Once he sees something is off, he's going to go out on the practice court and he's going to work on it. That's what I always loved about him.

I think he's very all-around player. He can play equally fast and well and aggressive, both aggressive and defensive from both corners, forehand, backhand. All surfaces. He's probably lacking a bit more consistency with his results comparing to Sinner, Alcaraz, which are his generation.

He looks to me as a player that is ready for big things. It takes a little bit of time maybe for him mentally, as well, to mature and to gain experience and to understand how he needs to play in certain moments and so forth on a big stage.

But he's got quite a bit of experience already for a 21-year-old, if I'm not mistaken. So he's been working. He's been working very hard. I think his serve is a big weapon now. Maybe it wasn't so much in the past. Serve and forehand. Of course backhand is as solid as anybody's. Return, as well. Close to the line. Really trying to take away the time from his opponent.