Novak Djokovic refused to blame his knee or anything else for losing a set to world number 277 in the second round of the 2024 Wimbledon Championships.
The Serbian entered Thursday’s Wimbledon match as a huge favorite, especially after easily winning the first match at SW19 this year. His opponent was a player ranked outside of the Top 200 but a native player who played a lot of tennis on the grass leading up to the match, and he did well.
Jacob Fearnley proved to be a very tricky player to deal with. He was competitive in most sets, especially towards the end of the match. He won the third set and nearly broke Djokovic in the fourth, but ultimately, the Serbian was able to escape in four sets.
After the match, he admitted to feeling good and refused to blame his knee or anything else on the result, simply saying that he could have and should have done better.
“I was feeling ok. Feeling alright. Don’t wanna be looking for any excuses of the performance today. Credit to Jacob. On my side, I should’ve done things better in the 3rd when I was a break up.”
“Very swirly conditions today.. physically I felt well. Can I be playing better and moving better? Absolutely. I hope as the tournament progresses I’ll be feeling better each day.”
Things won’t be any easier for Djokovic, so he’ll certainly have to approach things more seriously. In this match, he lost his lead in the third set, nearly forcing him to play five sets.
As his next opponent is Alexei Popyrin, things won’t be any simpler. He looked really good in the first round, but he looked a bit worse in his second match, and now, with an even tougher opponent, it could get more complicated.