THE CHAMPIONSHIPS

June 30, 2026

Novak Djokovic

Press Conference

N. DJOKOVIC/Wu Yibing

6-4, 5-7, 6-4, 6-4

THE MODERATOR: Start with questions.

Q. We see more and more young players dealing with the injuries. To me it's related by the fact this sport change a lot in the last 20 years, becomes more extreme defensively, offensively. Do you think there is a realistic solution to this problem, considering we cannot change the nature of the sport? They say they should play less tournaments, but realistically there is financial side.

NOVAK DJOKOVIC: Well, look, it's a good question. Your observation is correct in terms of the injuries. I mean, the stats are showing that.

I think we have to see this from two perspectives. One that is probably overwhelmingly now dominant in our sport, and we are not the only sport, is the commercial side, the commercial value that you are trying to increase by creating longer days, duration tournaments, introducing two tournaments to the already congested calendar.

I myself am not playing nearly as much as I used to play in the full season. I have the luxury of picking and choosing where I want to play. I don't get that kind of exposure to this high-intensity calendar and schedule like most of the other players.

I've seen there was a lot of debate on whether the Masters events particularly, because that was a big change, should be supported by the players, are the players satisfied with the new format, like extended days.

Me, I was always against it. Commercially, as we said, from that perspective, obviously adds value, but adds value for who? Adds value for the tournament owners mostly.

One thing I was trying to bring to the attention of the players was that they have to understand fully the background of this 30-year deal in order to see how they are not actually benefiting as much as they think they are.

Additionally, four days of the Masters event does generate much more value for the tournament than for the players.

I give you few examples:

One that was done, every Masters event owner could have, and quite a few of them did, upgrade their facilities, build new stadiums. But these stadiums, they are investments that are also going against the prize money and their negotiations with ATP. They are justifying these investments back to the ATP. ATP, or us players and tournaments of the ATP organization, get the benefit and the profit of the stadium revenue only for the duration of the tournament, which is less than two weeks. What happens the other 50 weeks is everything is going in the pocket of the stadium owner.

This is just one example.

There is many other underlying reasons why I completely am against and was always against this 30-year deal. The players got the shorter end of the stick. They wanted that. They pushed for that. I was at that point president of the council, but I didn't have enough executive power myself to vote against it. That's it. Now they have to deal with it.

I see the likes of Alcaraz and others, they're complaining about the length of the tournaments and not being home. I understand him. I understand them. I don't like it, too.

I think tennis really needs a reset of some kind on a bigger level. I think our tours respectively are not functioning well at all. I mean, there's a lot of things that is happening in the backstage, meetings, relationships are not going in the right direction.

Grand Slams are the pillars. Grand Slams are always going to be Grand Slams. They're always going to be the most important tournaments we have in our sport.

But respectively I think the tours have to look into the formats, rules, calendar. There's a lot of complaints. Latin American players that have a shorter season. Latin American players have been for decades producing some of the best players in the world. They have shorter and shorter seasons on clay, hard court. They have the combination of the two.

I feel like we are trying to Band-Aid on everything. Trying to fix something, take this tournament... What we have to do, in my opinion, if we want this sport to really improve and tour experiencing a long sustaining success in the future, in the next decades, and be able to compete with the popularity of all the other global sports, we just have to take all of the interest sides in our sport, all the key players, sit down, let's see what we can do.

I don't see that happening because what I've been hearing and what I've been seeing in the last couple years, there's a lot more conflict within the governing bodies of our sport than there is unity.

That's a long answer to your question. I'm all for innovation and change because we have to retain the culture and history of our sport, which I've always respected.

How do we get younger audience to like tennis? PTPA did years ago, we did this research and study. The age of the average tennis fan around the world was 61. With all due respect, how do we get younger people to get hooked on tennis? We get them to be interested in tennis for Grand Slams maybe. That's it.

They're not going to sit for four hours and five hours and watch tennis every day like that. It's not just going to happen. It's a short attention span. We have to see what the market is about. How do we get to them?

In my opinion, we have to change the format, the tours, have the tournaments have shorter matches, more dynamic, be able to have something more interesting and shorter length 'cause this is too long. You know what I mean?

Grand Slams, that's different. Playing best-of-five and so forth, I have my opinions on that. I think at least on the tours we can play around. We need to. It's not happening. So let's see what happens there.

Q. Recently interviewed Boris Becker and he told me how much he would like to come back to Wimbledon one day. What would it mean for you for him to return there?

NOVAK DJOKOVIC: Actually texted with him before Wimbledon. I asked him what's the situation because I don't know if he has permission to come into UK or not. Unfortunately still not.

I think I'm not the only one that would love to see Boris back to Wimbledon and to be able to, you know, just be here, be present. He's a legend of our game. He was my ex-coach. Worked with him three years during probably my best time of my career, most success.

Boris for me is a very dear friend, and I really care about him and his family. I sincerely hope he'll be able to be allowed to come back. He's the youngest-ever men's champion. He has a special connection to this place.

I don't know if this can help. I hope that the authorities will consider that.

Q. On the match today, you mentioned on court that you found it quite challenging. Can you expand on what you did find challenging?

NOVAK DJOKOVIC: Challenging in terms of the level of performance and the tennis of Wu Yibing. I never faced him before. I did my analysis. I looked at some of the matches he played prior to Wimbledon. I think he just won one match, lost very early also in challengers, other tournaments that he played as a lead-up.

I mean, I started well, and I liked my chances to maybe win in straights. He just took the tennis to a different level that was really impressive. I mean, serving, returning like incredibly deep and strong and fast shots that he played from both ends of the court and from the baseline, backhand and forehand. At one point there was no weakness really.

Of course, I dropped my level, but that's also due to his consistency and just great, great attacking, aggressive tennis. I was really hanging on the ropes in the fourth. I mean, I probably should have lost that set to be honest with the opportunities he had. I guess I managed to find the right serve at the right time. I was lucky he missed the overhead in the fourth. The match was toe to toe honestly. One or two shots, one or two points decided the winner.

I'm glad I managed to fight and stay focused till the end. It's one of these matches that we have to dig deep.

Q. You mentioned PTPA a bit ago, sort of a Civil War developing within the PTPA, the lawsuit filed by some members. What do you make of what's been going on there?

NOVAK DJOKOVIC: Yeah, I mean, PTPA is going through its own transformational period right now I think. I hope for the sake of not just PTPA as an organization but for sake of players, because PTPA originally was founded with an idea of representing 100% players across rankings, particularly for lower ranked players, players who are struggling, players whose voices are not heard.

I said this many times. ATP, there's always a conflict within the organization the way it's structured because the players and tournaments very oftentimes have different interests and different visions. That's where we get conflicted a lot.

I was in the council of ATP for many years. I know how the system works. I understand all the players who want to be in the council, want to make a difference, but you cannot make a difference the way it is formed, the way it is organized, structured. You cannot as a player make any difference in the players council of ATP, full stop.

That's the reason why I have, along with Vasek, co-founded PTPA with an idea and desire to hopefully get a seat at the table, the decision-making table, this organization to become really the official organization that represents players.

Obviously a lot of things has happened in the last several years. The direction of PTPA went in the kind of direction that I did not like. That's why I stepped out.

I'm not excluding the possibility of coming back, 'cause I care about it. I think an organization like this needs to coexist with all the other governing bodies in our ecosystem.

But let's see what happens. There's a lot of things happening around that lawsuit. It's pretty sensitive right now. I'm obviously observing, following. Let's see what happens.