Djokovic defended Nadal over Wimbledon seeding, and practiced on Serbian hard courts for Wimbledon 2019!

Novak Djokovic decided to skip the warm up tournaments and practiced on the Serbian hard courts in preparation for Wimbledon this year!

He also defended Rafael Nadal in his gripe over ranking demotion by Wimbledon, while conveniently forgetting the ranking bumps he, himself, has enjoyed, at Wimbledon, over the years.

The clay court season took its toll on Novak this year.

Novak wanted to take a break from competitive tennis and spend time with family after the busy clay court season in 2019. He failed in the bid to capture his second French Open crown and four consecutive slams again. The pressure to win four in a row, obviously, took its toll on Novak Djokovic and he decided to take it easy and unwind instead of jumping right into the fray after his semi final loss to Dominic Thiem at the French Open.

“This year the exertion of a lengthy clay court season prompted me to skip Queen’s and go straight to Wimbledon,” Djokovic said.

“I put a lot of pressure on myself before the French Open to make it four grand slams in a row again but having failed this time, I am going to Wimbledon with less weight on my shoulders as it’s the start of a new cycle,” he added.

Novak’s grass court preparation will be limited to the Boodles exhibition in London  this week.

Novak Djokovic defended Rafael Nadal over the Wimbeldon seeding.

Rafael Nadal expressed his gripe with being seeded 3 for Wimbledon. The revised seeding structure, for Wimbledon, means Rafa could play Novak Djokovic in the semifinals.

“I think it’s the usual thing,” Rafa lamented in an interview. “Wimbledon is the only tournament of the year that they do what they want in that sense, with their own criteria.

“Whether I’m two or three, I’ll have to play at my best. I will accept being three if they see it that way and I will fight to try to win my matches.

“The only thing that does not seem right to me about this story is that it is only Wimbledon that does it, only one tournament.

“It has not only happened to me, it has happened to other players. They do not respect the status that some players have earned throughout the season.”

Novak expressed his surprise and defended Nadal’s gripe on being pushed down in the seeding, “Roger Federer is the greatest of all-time on grass courts and he has won more Wimbledon titles than anyone else in history, but the guy he is being moved ahead of in the seedings is Rafael Nadal.”

 
Novak Djokovic, off course, conveniently forgot that he had enjoyed a big bump from 17 to 12 in the Wimbledon seeding just last year but never raised an objection to that.