WIMBLEDON — Novak Djokovic dished out all the compliments for Stan Wawrinka and they were returned in kind ahead of what the former has called the “duel of the veterans” at Wimbledon on Friday.
“One of the nicest one-handed backhands that I have ever played against or ever seen,” Djokovic said. “Very powerful. Very strong. Very complete.”
Djokovic wore a wry smile when noting the Swiss had also “taken away” two grand slams from him. Wawrinka may trail their head-to-head 20-6, but won two of his three major titles by beating Djokovic in the final – the French Open in 2015 and the US Open a year later.
There is therefore a mutual respect between the pair, while the last time they played on grass was together at Queen’s in the men’s doubles in 2018. They lost their first match.
“I like Stan a lot,” Djokovic added. “He’s a great person. It’s really always inspirational what he’s doing at his age. He’s almost 40 years old and he still keeps going strong. That’s something that not many people can do.
“After several surgeries of his knees, he keeps going strong. He still refuses to give up. We haven’t faced in quite some time, so it will be the duel of the veterans of the tour.”
During his matches in these championships the BBC have been displaying a counter, seconds included, of the last time Djokovic lost at Wimbledon.
Djokovic vs Wawrinka
- Date: Friday 7 July
- Time: 5pm BST estimate – could be earlier if Carlos Alcaraz and Iga Swiatek win swiftly
- Venue: Centre Court
- TV: Wimbledon is being shown across BBC one and BBC Two. Highlights are on BBC Two from 8.30pm every evening.
- Live stream: BBC iPlayer, the red button, the BBC Sport website and app
- i predicts: Djokovic in straight sets, maybe, maybe, Wawrinka wins a set
As of Friday it will be 2,187 days – and however many hours, minutes and seconds – and so it is difficult to look past a routine win over Wawrinka in his continued charged for a record-equalling 24th slam and eighth at SW19.
Wawrinka knows it too.
“There’s zero opportunity to win Wimbledon for me, I think,” said Wawrinka after his four-set victory over Tomas Martin Ethcheverry.
“I’m happy to have won again and I’m playing better each match, and as I say, I think it’s an honour to play Novak here. It’s going to be a difficult challenge.
“Hopefully I can make it a competitive match, but if you will look at recent results, I don’t really stand a chance.”
Fair enough. Djokovic has not lost on Centre Court since 2013, and is 29-4 for the year compared to Wawrinka’s 15-11, a series of early exits on clay and not a single warm-up tournament on grass.
“Have you seen him play?” Wawrinka replied, when asked if he was surprised Djokovic could match Roger Federer’s Wimbledon record this year.
“Give me one weakness. I think he’s been an amazing player to play. He’s the perfect player. If you look, everything is so clean. He plays the perfect shot in the right moment. I love to watch him play, as much as I was loving to watch Roger play.
“He’s serving amazing, he’s returning everything. He can do everything.”
Compliments aplenty then from both corners, niceties before what should be a procession, especially given Wawrinka is already expecting the worse.
“I have to be on the court and play my best tennis like I did in the past, but right now it’s been a long time I didn’t play at that level,” he added.
“It’s going to be interesting. Hopefully I can make a competitive match, but it’s going to be difficult.”
