Ce lundi, le coup d'envoi officiel de Wimbledon a été donné. Tenant du titre, Novak Djokovic débutait bien entendu sur le Centre Court en première rotation, comme le veut la tradition. Depuis 2017, le Serbe n'a plus perdu sur ce court ni sur aucun autre de l'AELTC. Sa quête d'un 24e Grand Chelem s'annonce passionnante à suivre. Il a en tout cas commencé tranquillement contre Pedro Cachin, bien plus habitué à la terre battue. En souplesse, le Serbe s'est imposé 6-3, 6-3, 7-6(4). Breaké dès le troisième jeu, Djokovic a ensuite enclenché la seconde et survolé la rencontre. 45 coups gagnants pour 19 fautes directes, une belle manière de commencer sa quête d'un 24e titre du Grand Chelem. Prochaine étape : Jordan Thompson. Un joueur déjà plus dangereux sur gazon. Nole pourra se tester et tenter de monter en puissance mercredi.
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00:00 great to finish the match today as well. A little bit of strange circumstances with the
00:06 roof being closed and us delaying the match for almost an hour and a half. It's a feeling
00:16 like no other tournament in the world of walking out on the centre court of Wimbledon as a
00:22 defending champion, so on the fresh grass. It's amazing to be back to a dream tournament
00:27 and to be able to get the first match out of the way. It was a solid performance. I
00:35 know I can always play better, but at the same time, after a long clay court season,
00:41 coming into Wimbledon without any preparation tournament lead-up event, any official match
00:46 on grass, it was expected that I still would probably not be at my 100 per cent of the
00:54 level of my tennis. I've been in these situations before, so hopefully as the tournament progresses
00:59 I'll raise my level as well.
01:01 You had a minute of breathing into the towel and you were a break down early on. What was
01:11 going through your mind as you were embedded in your towel?
01:15 I was trying to get rid of the shadow that I had in my eyes from the sun. I just looked
01:23 at the sun a couple of times when I was tossing the ball and I had a shadow in my eyes. That's
01:28 all it was, basically. Nothing else.
01:33 The nerves are always there, of course, because you are playing in front of the back stadium
01:40 in one of the most important tennis courts in the world. Regardless of the fact that
01:47 I've had so much experience in so many matches on that court, you still feel nerves. I don't
01:52 recall the last time I played an official tennis match anywhere, particularly in Grand
01:57 Slams, where I didn't feel any nerves. It's normal to feel nerves. It's just a matter
02:02 of how you adapt and how you focus your attention on being productive to yourself.
02:16 It seems to me that just before the rain interruption, you called the umpire down because you seemed
02:23 concerned about the state of the court. Do you think they left it a little bit too late
02:27 to come off and that's what caused the problems because the grass was already wet by the time
02:31 the covers were on, the roof was on?
02:34 We did talk about that, but I was communicating quite a lot out of the court with the supervisor
02:44 and referee and chairman of the club came down as well. So they were all a little bit
02:52 confused because that's something that they never experienced. Ever since the roof was
03:00 installed on the centre court, normally it takes 10 to 20 minutes for when the roof is
03:06 closed for the air conditioning to do its job and grass to dry and to be ready for play.
03:14 That was the case with court one. We saw that players came back after maybe 15 minutes to
03:20 court one and they resumed play, but we didn't and we couldn't really. Both of us players
03:29 wanted to come out and we did several times to show to the crowds that we want to play,
03:33 we want to be there, but it was just too many places on the court which were too slippery
03:43 and really moist. So you touch the grass and your palm is completely wet. So it was very
03:50 strange that for more than an hour the situation was not changing at all for better. I think
03:56 they're checking right now. I think they will probably answer this question better for you,
04:00 whether it's the air conditioning system or it was quite humid. So that didn't help. Grass
04:05 is such a sensitive surface for maintenance and it's definitely very challenging if you
04:13 have a minute or two more of rain than you need to. But at the same time, I think it
04:24 was a good call from Teran Pajar, even though I did ask him, but he wanted to finish the
04:27 game and it was still playable, so to say. And as soon as we finished the game, maintenance
04:34 people from the court staff came inside and covered the court. So I don't think it has
04:41 gotten too much wet from that maybe extra minute and a half or something. I just feel
04:49 it has something to do with something else. So that's probably not the question for me.
04:56 We were lucky that rain stopped so we could resume play with an open roof.
05:01 Did they need to turn the air conditioning up then maybe?
05:04 They did everything they possibly could. As I said, we communicated every few minutes.
05:13 But they were also very confused with what's going on. So I guess they will check that
05:19 and hopefully they'll fix it because that's one of the only two courts that has a roof
05:23 and if it starts raining, if you can't play under the roof, then that's a little bit of
05:27 an issue for schedule.
05:28 You looked very relaxed during the rain break. There were pictures of you chatting to Dan
05:34 Blox and you waited to come back and then you had some humour with the crowd. Is that
05:38 a function of being at this stage of your career with all the success behind you or
05:42 would you always have been that relaxed in that kind of situation?
05:49 I wouldn't particularly say it's quite a unique feeling for me just because I've won my 23rd
05:58 slam. I've always tried to have fun in particular circumstances where you can't control things.
06:09 Like today, we were waiting. I've had some funny rain delays in Paris as well and New
06:16 York where I joked around.
06:23 The first information we got when we walked off the court was you're coming back in 10-15
06:27 minutes and then every 10 minutes was like in 10 minutes and then the referee after the
06:34 third time checking the court, he said, "I don't know what really I can tell you more.
06:39 It's just not playable. I don't want to risk anything and I don't want you guys to get
06:44 out on the court." So then we went and checked and we had fun with it. We received the good
06:51 news that they will open the roof and then wind obviously did its job and dried the court.
06:57 We came in and I tried to do something with a towel, just bring some, I guess, a little
07:03 bit of laughs and entertainment for the crowd.
07:06 Novak, you chose not to play any international tournament prior to Wimbledon. Now we have
07:16 three weeks beforehand, we are only two so it was more usual versus Bjorn Borg who didn't
07:22 play. I was curious because you chose the Azores.
07:25 I wanted to say I was in your country, that's why I couldn't play.
07:28 Thank you. I was wondering, could you take us through the preparations when you started?
07:36 Have you played in the Azores?
07:39 No, I didn't play in the Azores. I actually hiked a lot with my wife and I spent some
07:45 quality time with her. What a wonderful islands you have there. It's fantastic. It's quite
07:52 remote, though. When we were supposed to take off, we were stuck because of the fog and
07:59 so we had to fly the next day. But amazing food, amazing people, very friendly. It was
08:08 great because I've been through a lot of different emotions during the play season, particularly
08:17 obviously reaching the climax in Paris and I needed to get away and get isolated a little
08:22 bit. I had a pretty active recovery there but still mentally felt refreshed when I came
08:29 back. It was never in the plan if I would go to reach the final stages of Roland Garros
08:35 that I would play any grass court event because I haven't done that in the last four years
08:42 and before that as well. I just played a few times, actually, Queens or Eastbourne in '17,
08:48 Queens in '18 and after that I have not played a lead-up event because I just felt that it's
08:57 probably better for me to take an extra week of training to get used to the grass, the
09:03 movement, the specifics of grass court tennis and what it requires from the player. Different
09:11 tactics, different game style. Ideally, yes, you want to play one or two or three official
09:18 matches but it was just too short of a time and I was too exhausted physically, emotionally
09:25 and I just needed to regroup. It has worked the last four years. There's no reason to
09:33 believe it can't work again but it's a long tournament and so far I'm feeling good.