Traditionally players congregate at The All England Club the weekend before main draw action gets underway to face the media.
The media weekend, split over Saturday and Sunday depending on the player’s scheduling, provides the world with insight into what is currently happening on the Tour. One example is Jannik Sinner’s decision to fire two key members of his team. Inevitably, there were many topics covered.
Here is a breakdown of five key stories from Saturday’s press conferences.
Djokovic’s best chance to win another Grand Slam
Novak Djokovic is one of the most consistent players at SW19 of all time. The Serbian has reached the quarter-finals or better at Wimbledon in 14 out of his last 15 appearances and is a seven-time champion. Should he win the trophy once again in 2025, he will draw level with Roger Federer for most men’s titles won.
Now at the age of 37, Djokovic admits he is entering the closing stages of his career. He aims to continue playing for a couple more years but the Serbian admits nothing is certain.
“Whether it could be my last dance, I’m not sure, as I’m not sure about Roland Garros or any other slam that I play next,” he explained.
“My wish is to play for several more years. I would love to be healthy physically and also mentally motivated to keep on playing at the highest level. That’s the goal, but you never know at this stage.”
Seeking a historic 25th major title, Djokovic believes Wimbledon is his best chance of adding to his Grand Slam collection. His current tally features 10 Australian Open titles, seven from Wimbledon, four from the US Open and three from the French Open.
“I would probably agree that Wimbledon could be the best chance (of winning another Grand Slam) because of the results I had, how I feel and how I play in Wimbledon,” Djokovic commented.
“Getting that extra push mentally and motivation to perform the best tennis at the highest level.”
Should Djokovic triumph at Wimbledon, he would become the oldest man in the Open Era to win a Grand Slam.
Is there a romance brewing for Raducanu and Alcaraz?
Speculation of a new power couple in the world of tennis involving Emma Raducanu has been dismissed. In recent days, the tennis world has been intrigued by the prospect of a blossoming romance between her and reigning Wimbledon champion Carlos Alcaraz. The two were seen laughing and joking with each other earlier this week at the All England Club.
“We’re just good friends,” Raducanu replied when asked.
The two will be joining forces later this year at the US Open when they take part in the US Open mixed doubles tournament.
“It was fun yesterday (Friday). We (her and Alcaraz) were both on court with Evian. We were just getting some volley practice ahead of New York. I’m really happy obviously to be playing with him. We had a good time yesterday.” Raducanu added.
As for her Wimbledon chances, Raducanu says she doesn’t have ‘much expectation’ for herself. Coming into the tournament, she has played two grass-court events, reaching the quarter-finals at Queen’s before losing in the second round at Eastbourne. Her best Wimbledon run was reaching the fourth round twice.
Draper is ready to fill the void left by Murray
Jack Draper is confident he will be able to deal with the pressure of leading Britain’s hopes at the tournament.
The 23-year-old is the highest-seeded home player in the tournament since 2017 when Andy Murray was the top seed. He has yet to win back-to-back matches at The All England Club but hopes are high considering his promising first half of this season. He won the Indian Wells Masters, as well as reached the finals of the Miami Masters and Qatar Open.
“When Andy retired, they said I was the next in line,” BBC Sport quoted Draper as saying.
“I’ll keep trying to do my best to keep try and improving, to show my best tennis out there, to hopefully present myself as the player and the person I want to be.
“Andy has done an unbelievable job of that, has been incredibly successful and has become adored by the nation.
“It’s obviously big shoes to fill. I’m aware of that. At the same time I’m confident in myself that hopefully I can inspire people like Andy has done.”
Draper, who will play Sebastien Baez in the first round, recently suffered from tonsillitis which he admitted affecting him whilst playing at the HSBC Championships at Queen’s. Has he fully recovered now?
“I rested up for a couple of days. I trained. I played a match at Hurlingham. I feel much better now. I’m full of energy to try and find my best tennis this coming week.” He aasured.
Gauff aims to match Serena
After triumphing at the French Open by beating Aryna Sabalenka in the title match, Coco Gauff finds herself in a position to achieve a milestone no female player has achieved for a decade. Serena Williams was the last person to lift the trophy at both Roland Garros and SW19 within the same year back in 2015.
“I think that’s the reason why this kind of double is so hard, it’s a quick turnaround. You go from winning such a high tournament and kind of having to be back to work not even a few days later,” Gauff said of trying to win the two events back-to-back.
“I would love to do that. I’m not going to put that much pressure on myself because I’ve been telling my team and people around me, this is all new territory for me.
“I’m trying to take it as I go. If I were to end up there, it would be great. If not, I’ll try to come up with a better way to prepare for this tournament next year.”
Wimbledon is the only Grand Slam where the 21-year-old is yet to reach the quarter-final stage. The American has made it through to the fourth round three times in 2019, 2021 and 2024.
“I would love to win this, but I’m a big believer in just conquering one step at a time. If I get past that stage, then I’ll start thinking about winning,” she said.
Gauff will be making his sixth main draw appearance in the tournament this year.
Sabalenka clears the air with the use of dance
Sabalenka insists there is no friction between her and Gauff following their French Open final showdown. The world No.1 blasted her performance after the match and told reporters in Paris that Iga Swiatek would have probably won that match. A day later Sabalenka issued an apology for her comments which she said were made in the heat of the moment.
To illustrate there are no hard feelings, the two recently teamed up for a TikTok video that has already generated more than 1.6M views.
“I was just completely, like, upset with myself, and emotions got over me. I just completely lost it,” Sabalenka explained.
“We are good friends. I hope the U.S. media can be easy on me right now,” she added.
As for Gauff, she is hoping everybody will forget the incident and move on.
“I’m not the person that will fuel hate in the world,” she commented.
“I think people were taking it too far … It was just really targeting and saying a lot of things that I felt were not nice. I didn’t want to fuel that more.”
