Mats Wilander backs Novak Djokovic to go all the way at Wimbledon and equal Margaret Court’s record of 24 Grand Slam titles
Former World No. 1 Mats Wilander showered praise on 23-time Grand Slam title champion Novak Djokovic, rating him as the "favorite" for the upcoming 2023 Wimbledon.
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Mats Wilander(left) and Novak Djokovic(right).
Former tennis player Mats Wilander has backed Novak Djokovic to go all the way in the upcoming Wimbledon Championships, rating him as the “big favorite”. He believes that Djokovic enjoys playing on grass, and at this moment there is hardly any player who can challenge him on that court. Wilander, who is a seven-time Grand Slam winner himself, also talked about how fast young gun Carlos Alcaraz has been growing.
Djokovic has already won the first two Grand Slams of this year (Australian Open and French Open) and has set his sights on completing the calendar Grand Slam for the first time in his entire career. In a recent interview with Eurosport, Wilander said, “To me, Novak Djokovic goes in as the big favorite. And the reason that I think he’s the big favorite is that I still haven’t seen anyone who is as solid as Novak from the baseline that serves as well as Novak.”
Furthermore, he also compared Alcaraz’s dominance in the last few months with Novak’s experience, saying that the Spanish star will be on the back foot despite winning the Queen’s Club Championships on the grass court.
However, despite this, Wilander still believes that there is plenty for the Spanish star to learn about the grass court and that he needs more time to adapt to the conditions.
What according to Wilander puts Djokovic ahead of other players in the competition?
As per the former tennis professional himself, in order to excel on the grass court, one needs to take care of his or her serve and win as many points as possible by serving accurately. He believes Novak Djokovic has the upper hand over all the other 127 players because of his accurate serving.
He said, “No one serves as precisely as Novak. And I think in the end, in Wimbledon, I think serving becomes extremely important.” He further mentioned that Alcaraz needs to take more care of his service in order to win the championships. The mantra for winning should be to take small steps and make strategies accordingly.
Continuing his train of thought, he concluded, The big server, I think, Alcaraz has to look out for; I think he figured out how to move. You cannot go as fast on a grass court. You have to stop by taking small steps.”
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Vitasta Singh
(691 Articles Published)