Novak Djokovic concedes that fellow player Stefanos Tsitsipas is ‘not in the best shape’ after storming past the former world No.3 at Wimbledon.
Djokovic cruised into the third round with a dominant 6-3, 6-4, 6-2 win over Tsitsipas, whom he has now beaten 12 times in a row on the Tour, with two of those victories being in a major final. The 39-year-old was in charge throughout the majority of the clash, breaking his opponent once in each of the first two sets and then twice in the third. It is the 20th time he has reached the third round at SW19 in what is an Open Era record.
The comprehensive victory is a stark contrast to Djokovic’s opening match against China’s Wu Yibing, whom he defeated in four tightly contested sets. It was evident how comfortable Djokovic was in his latest match when he pulled a prank on a ball girl who was helping cut a tag off his shirt. He pretended she cut him in a light-hearted moment that prompted laughter but scared her at the same time.
“I guess these kinds of things surface when you are two sets to love up rather than two sets to love down,” he joked on court.
“Stefanos [Tsitsipas] went to change and I had some spare time! I don’t know if she’s still around, but I’m sorry if I scared her! It wasn’t that great of a joke I guess, but it made me a bit more relaxed on the court! I was just having some fun.”
Jokes aside, Djokovic admits he wasn’t facing a peak Tsitsipas on Centre Court on Wednesday. The Greek, who recently decided to stop having his father as his coach, is currently ranked 87th in the world and has only featured in one ATP Tour quarter-final so far this season.
“Stefanos is not in the best shape like he was when he was top 5 in the world and playing Grand Slam finals. That’s obvious.” He said.
“You could feel that in important moments where he would miss some shots that normally maybe he wouldn’t. But that’s tennis. When you play at the highest level, if you don’t have confidence, you start to overthink on the shots, then you’re not really feeling comfortable playing the right shots at the right time.
“He’s still, I think, finding his confidence and trying to get to that desired level, to the level that he played on before for many years.”
Playing under the roof, Djokovic did slip a couple of times on the grass. Fortunately, no damage was caused to him and his bid for a historic 25th major title.
“It’s grass. You’re going to fall more than on any other surface,” he said.
“You’re going to probably have even more risk of falling if the roof is closed because the grass is slippery. There’s more moisture; there’s more humidity. It’s more slippery on the court.
“It’s not something that you can prevent, as well. In the heat of the moment, you’re fighting, battling; it can happen.”
Djokovic, who is only the sixth man in the Open era to reach the last 32 at Wimbledon after turning 39, will next play French 25th seed Arthur Rinderknech in what will be their first Tour-level meeting.
