No grass courts? No problem, says Wimbledon king Djokovic

TIL Desk Sports/ Lack of grass courts in Serbia will not be detrimental to Novak Djokovic’s bid to defend his Wimbledon title, the world number one said in the early stages of his training for the July 1-14 tournament at the All England Club. “Find me a grass court in Belgrade and I will practice there,” Djokovic joked when asked last week by reporters why he chose a hardcourt complex in the Serbian capital’s centre to start his preparations.

“We don’t have any in Serbia, do we? I am really hopeful that we will build some grass courts soon enough, but these hard courts will do for the time being.“The reason I am training here at the moment is because it’s the most similar surface to grass in terms of ball speed and player movement.” Djokovic, who is aiming for a fifth Wimbledon title and his 16th Grand Slam crown, plans to play only one or two exhibition matches in the build-up to the grasscourt major.

Asked why he changed the routine and skipped this year’s Queen’s tournament in London, Djokovic pointed out that whereas he needed as much action as he could get ahead of last year’s tournament, he opted for a different approach in 2019. “The situation is a bit different this time because I played very few matches prior to last year’s Wimbledon due to my injury and the elbow surgery,” he said.