Jannik Sinner is back at Wimbledon, hoping to add another Grand Slam title to his collection.
After losing a heart-wrenching French Open final to Carlos Alcaraz – a match where he had three championship points – the Italian has started his Wimbledon campaign off on the right foot after comfortably beating Luca Nardi 6-4 6-3 6-0.
The world number one has looked impressive so far, utilising his powerful groundstrokes and consistent serve to great effect.
Sinner’s two greatest rivals, Novak Djokovic and Carlos Alcaraz, will be looking to halt the Italian in the tournament. The Italian has played both at the tournament before and recently noted that one of them made him feel ‘average.’
Jannik Sinner says Novak Djokovic made him feel ‘average’ during their first Wimbledon match
Sinner was recently interviewed on the Wimbledon YouTube channel, where he was shown his Centre Court debut against Carlos Alcaraz and his first match against Novak Djokovic at Wimbledon, which happened at the quarter-final stage in 2022.
The Italian star was frank about how he felt against Djokovic, saying that the Serbian 24-time major winner made him feel ‘average.’
He said: “I was very nervous that day because with him I felt like the history going into the court too because he has won so many times.”
“Novak is the kind of player who if he wants he never misses and he just makes you feel so average at times and I had that feeling the first times when I played against him and I was up here two sets to love against him and then after he killed me.
“He killed me. When he went off the court, came back, he killed me. I was a different player of course but it was just so good to see from my side that things can change just so quickly.
However, Sinner has since bounced back from the loss and now holds a superior head-to-head record over the Serbian player, with the Italian leading by five wins to Djokovic’s four.
He added: “Here was raining that day and we were playing with the roof closed and it was very slippery and you could see the difference of how he manages everything, how calm he is and this was a very, very good lesson for me and for my career too which showed me that there is still a lot of work to do.”
Sinner was leading the match against Djokovic by two sets to love, but ultimately ended up losing in five sets.
When could Jannik Sinner and Novak Djokovic meet at Wimbledon?
Djokovic, who on Monday afternoon beat Britain’s Dan Evans to make the third round, will be hoping to make a statement run at the championships as he searches for that elusive 25th Grand Slam title.
The Serbian player has made the final in the past two years at Wimbledon, only to lose to Carlos Alcaraz on both occasions.
Djokovic could face Sinner in the semi-finals. He will likely have to come through a tough test in the quarter-final, with Jack Draper in his section of the draw. Sinner recently described Draper as one of his ‘best friends’ on tour.
Following Djokovic’s second round win, Jannik Sinner will face Aleksandar Vukic on Thursday afternoon.
