Andy
Roddick defended
Novak Djokovic's performance at
Wimbledon. The Serbian reached
the final for the 10th time in his career but fell short against Carlos
Alcaraz, who claimed the victory comfortably with a 6-2, 6-2, 7-6(4) win,
securing his 4th Grand Slam title.
Djokovic's
performance at the All England Club was quite surprising, considering he had
undergone knee surgery just weeks before the tournament began. Despite this,
the Serbian managed to hasten his recovery and, at 37 years old, achieved a
great campaign at the third Grand Slam of the year.
Andy
Roddick backs Djokovic after Wimbledon setback
The 2003 US
Open champion analyzed Djokovic's journey to the final on his podcast
"Served with
Andy Roddick." Djokovic defeated Victor Kopriva (No.
123),
Jacob Fearnley (No. 277), and
Alexei Popyrin (No. 47) to get through the
first week of competition. In the Round of 16, he defeated 15th seed Holger
Rune in straight sets.
For the
quarterfinals, Djokovic didn't even have to take the court, benefiting from
Alex De Minaur's withdrawal after an unfortunate injury in the fourth round. In
the semifinals, Djokovic beat
Lorenzo Musetti (No. 25) before facing Alcaraz in
the final. "The guy made the final on no prep, like he showed up the
Monday before and was like, ‘Let’s wing it’, and wasn’t right the first couple
of rounds but made a final," Roddick said.
"Are
we gonna say he’s slow? He’s not slow, he’s 37, he’s slower than he was five
years ago but the guy’s one of the best movers of all time. His ball striking
was great, his serve was average, he didn’t volley well at all,” the former
world No. 1 added. "But there’s a couple of things there are also… like I
read comments and it was like ‘Knee’s bad! Knee’s good!’. Ok, knee can be
healthy, not injured, and also because of the knee injury, you’re not as
physically dialed as we’ve come to expect you to be, by no fault of your
own."
![Djokovic played with protection on his knee throughout the tournament, just few weeks after surgery.](https://r.testifier.nl/Acbs8526SDKI/resizing_type:fit/watermark:Picture%3A%20IMAGO/width:1280/plain/https://s3-newsifier.ams3.digitaloceanspaces.com/tennisuptodate.com/images/2024-07/djokovicwimbledon-6693f69435b03.jpg@webp)
Djokovic played with protection on his knee throughout the tournament, just few weeks after surgery.
Roddick
also commented on Djokovic's difficulties in winning points at the net. The
7-time Wimbledon champion is usually one of the best net players on grass.
However, he only won 51% of net points, compared to Alcaraz's 73%, which was
one of the key differences favoring the Spaniard.
"The
other thing is people like ‘Oh Novak’s volleys are horrible!’. Okay, time out,
let’s just stop. Nothing he does on the tennis court is horrible. Because he
lost to another younger player who is going to also be one of the all-time
greats, doesn’t mean we can deal on absolutes," Roddick added.
"People
were like, ‘Oh he’s missing those drop shots’. They’re below his net, he’s
hitting it up to the fastest person on the planet. There’s an extra layer with
everything you do when you’re playing the greats even if you’re a great,"
the American added.