THE CHAMPIONSHIPS

July 1, 2025

Jay Clarke

Press Conference

D. EVANS/J. Clarke

6-1, 7-5, 6-2

THE MODERATOR: Tough one out there today. What were your takeaways from the match?

JAY CLARKE: Yeah, it was pretty similar, unfortunately, to the other match I played during the grass season. I had some chances. Didn't really take them.

Then when the other chances came, I didn't protect my serve well enough early on in the sets. Yeah, you can't really do that on grass tennis. That's what he did a lot better than me, 30-All points, Love-30. He put in two very good first serves. Yeah, I hit a couple of double faults at unfortunate times in big moments. Yeah, it kind of just went away from me. Yeah.

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. When you saw the draw facing Dan Evans, what were you thinking? Did you feel some sort of pressure? Was it okay that you were both Brits? What was running through your mind, basically?

JAY CLARKE: Dan has always been very good in the recent past, and obviously grass, I think it's -- you can kind of hide. I don't think he's as fast, I would say, or as in good a shape or playing as well as he was, obviously, when he was 20 in the world, but he's very experienced.

Going into the match, obviously it's one of those things, it could be much worse. I could have been playing one of the high seeds in the first round, but also, there is a lot of guys who maybe aren't as good on grass as Dan. Obviously he's had a lot of good wins over the past few weeks on the grass.

Yeah, mixed feelings going into the match. It was more just excitement to be back playing Wimbledon. It's just obviously a shame how it ended up, but yeah.

Q. Just about the match, the first set, I think probably not the best, but you picked up in the second. What was the kind of thinking after the first set, because it was like a struggle, but you did pick up in the second set. Can you talk a bit about that?

JAY CLARKE: Yeah, obviously it's five sets. Like I said, I didn't protect my serve well enough at the start. I was basically just trying to find the speed of the court. It was faster today because of the heat.

You only get a couple of hours on the match courts before the tournament. And they're slightly different to Aorangi and stuff. It was more trying to find my feet and get comfortable on the court.

Q. Did you find the conditions tough?

JAY CLARKE: Yeah, it was very tough. Grass is different physically than clay. You have to stay a lot lower, how you kind of move to the ball and stuff, having to -- you can't slide into it, so you have to decelerate more, so it's a lot more physically taxing on the legs. We're not used to having this kind of heat through the U.K. Especially at this time.

Yeah, it was a weird match. I haven't been feeling great over the last few days. I've been a bit physically drained. Yeah, I tried to do my best to get ready for today. I picked up in the second set, but the first set, yeah, I was a bit all over the place.

Q. What learnings do you take from today?

JAY CLARKE: It's just one match, at the end of the day. I've had a good year so far. At the start I was outside 300, and now I'm back up to 180-something in the world.

We're only six months into the year. There's still another six months. So, yeah, this one match doesn't -- it doesn't mean I'm crap. It doesn't mean I'm amazing either. Yeah, I just need to basically just get better.

If I did a few things better, maybe I would have taken the second set after I got the break. That's the thing with tennis, especially on grass. The margins are small, but a couple of points here and there, and potentially being 4-All turns into a 6-1 set. There's no hiding from it. I need to get better. That's what my focus is on now.

Q. Just building off of that, what comes next for you?

JAY CLARKE: Rest (smiling). It's been a long season so far. I've played a lot of tournaments, done a lot of traveling. I get back on clay. It's my favorite surface. So, yeah, I go back training after five days off, depending if I get in mixed or not. It may be slightly longer.

Then training on clay, and then I go to clay challengers in Europe before US Open quallies.

Q. In terms of your season so far, would you say this has probably been one of your better seasons, just considering that was your first challenger?

JAY CLARKE: Yeah, I would say it's been tough since the wrist surgery. I was top 200 in the world for, like, seven years or something like that, and I was battling pain in the wrist for a long time. So when I did have to take -- because the wrist got that bad, I had to take the decision to do the surgery, obviously stopping. I think I stopped for five-and-a-half months. I wanted to try it. Wasn't ready. Had to stop again for, like, another three months.

My ranking took a hit, and at the age I'm at, I wasn't going to basically get any wild cards, so I had to start back in futures and honestly, with how the points and things like that are structured now, you have to win a lot of matches, a lot of weeks in a row just to get back to the challengers. Yeah, basically it was just 18 months of futures with challengers when I could get in.

Then I started to put a lot of good futures results on my board, but I was just outside the slam qualifying, because basically to get to Grand Slams, you need challenger results. Unfortunately, I missed the French Open by -- like, I had the ranking, but because of Madrid, it took two weeks of points to go on, so I didn't get in there, but then I won a challenger the week of French Open quallies.

So, yeah, it's definitely been a good season so far. I think I did, like, six or seven tournaments in a row not losing before the final or something like that. Yeah, obviously new for me. Any level, if you win, you get confidence. No, it's been a good season so far.

Unfortunately, the grass happens like this sometimes. You play -- players are better. Obviously being a wild card, you're lower than them. It's a tricky surface.

A couple of points maybe earlier on in the season would have given me a bit more confidence on the grass, but it didn't happen this year. So, yeah, just back on to training now.

Q. Your wrist is completely fine now?

JAY CLARKE: The wrist is fine now, and that's what's given me so much confidence that I should be able to play so many weeks in a row and to train properly and actually not think about it. Yeah, not have to take so long out between tournaments to rest it and to rehab and stuff like that. I've been able to build on the level, so that's why I've been able to go to futures quallies and winning futures and then playing challengers and winning challengers again.

Yeah, I'm really happy with where I'm at. My ranking goal at the start of the year was to end the year inside the top 200, and I've done that six months early.

Yeah, it stings today, but I mean, I'm in a good place with where I said I wanted to be six months ago.