Former World No.1 Andy Roddick shared his opinion on why he thinks Jannik Sinner would win the Wimbledon semifinal against Novak Djokovic, while highlighting the Serb’s five-set wins. Sinner defeated Jan-Lennard Struff in three sets during the quarterfinal round.
Djokovic advanced to the semifinal after the longest-played Wimbledon quarterfinal ever. He saw off the Canadian third seed Felix Auger-Aliassime in a hard-fought 7-6(10), 3-6, 6-3, 6-7(4), 7-6(4) victory. As Djokovic is resting and gearing up for the next match, Roddick believes that Sinner is the favorite to win the battle. He opined that the last five-set win took a lot out of him mentally and physically.
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In his show Served with Andy Roddick, he stated that the two-day break will be an advantage for the Serb rather than the one-day break, in which case the 24-time Grand Slam winner would have been exhausted.
“I don’t know how Novak is going to pull up over a seven, six, and the fifth marathon. Two days, but two days is a real amount of time. One day would have been cooked.”
Roddick added that Sinner has a bigger margin for error than Djokovic. He highlighted Djokovic’s win over Sinner in five sets at the Australian Open semifinal, but said that he is skeptical if the Serbian star can repeat that again.
“I think Sinner’s the favorite,” he added. “Here’s what I think. I think the path to victory is a narrower margin for Novak. I don’t think Sinner has to play as perfectly as Novak has to. The one stat that I think is largely ignored from the Australia match: Novak wins in five. Unbelievable. All the superlatives fit.”
“He threaded the needle, pulled it off over five sets. His set of margins was narrower in Australia and he figured it out. Is that normal? And if we put that at scale, is he able to do that again? He is capable. It would shock no one if he won this match. I just think Sinner’s path is wider to win this match” (15:20 onwards)
Novak Djokovic will lock horns with Jannik Sinner for the 12th time on the ATP Tour, with the Italian leading the head-to-head score 6-5.
Novak Djokovic opens up on how he won the longest Wimbledon quarterfinal
Novak Djokovic won the quarterfinal round against Felix Auger-Aliassime after an intense battle of five hours and 15 minutes. In an on-court interview after the match, when asked about how he managed to win such a physically and mentally demanding match, Djokovic said.
“With a racquet and a lot of heart, you know, a lot of management of the nerves and the extreme tension that you feel in these kinds of matches towards the end. It was really anybody’s game. I think the scoreline was pretty much even all the way through. That’s a reflection of the kind of match it was today.”
“I think it was really anybody’s game in the super tie-break in the fifth,” he added. “What can I say? These are the kind of moments that I still play tennis for, for sure. I wish it was the final, so I don’t have to worry about how the body will feel tomorrow. But yeah, I’m happy. I’m happy that I won.” (00:15 onwards)
Novak Djokovic has now reached the Wimbledon semifinals 15 times in 19 years.
Edited by Janhavi Shinde