Former Serena Williams coach Rennae Stubbs has voiced concerns regarding Novak Djokovic’s participation at the 2024 Wimbledon Championships. The former world no. 1 in doubles expressed her shock at the Serb’s placement in the coveted grasscourt major draw, less than a month after having knee surgery.
During his thrilling match against Francisco Cerundolo in the fourth round of this year’s French Open, Djokovic suffered a meniscus tear in his right knee.
Djokovic remained vague about his participation in Wimbledon, even after arriving early at SW19 to finish his preparations. But for now, the Serb will compete in the hopes of winning the eighth Wimbledon title, which would tie him with Roger Federer for the record.
Stubbs, who prepared Serena Williams for the US Open in 2022, is unable to understand Djokovic’s choice to compete at Wimbledon. The 53-year-old used her personal experience to highlight how challenging it may be to fully recover from surgery for a torn meniscus so quickly.
Stubbs said during a conversation: “I cannot believe that Djokovic is in the Wimbledon draw. I’ve had two meniscus surgeries and I can tell you, six weeks was the minimum before I came back, and I still think that was too early for me.”Â
She further said: “I cannot imagine having surgery on my knee and the first tournament I play is slippery grass, because you know the first day, you know Sam, you make one wrong step and bang! Your knee goes down. We’ve seen it over and over and over. We saw it with Vondrousova last week; it’s a dangerous surface to play on early on because it’s so slick. So, I cannot believe that he’s actually in the draw.”
Novak Djokovic in 2024
LWWWWWWLWW Ranked world no.2, Djokovic played his last match on the 3rd of June when he defeated world no.30 Francisco Cerundolo 6-1 5-7 3-6 7-5 6-3 in the 4th round of the French Open (draw).
During this season the Serbian achieved a compiled 18-6 match record. Novak Djokovic’s most significant result of this year was getting to the semifinal at the Australian Open, Monte Carlo and Geneva.
Novak Djokovic will face the world no.123 Vit Kopriva in the 1st round. They have never played each other up to now in top events.
The Serbian won 99 titles in his career: 53 on hard courts, 19 on clay courts, 19 on indoor courts and 8 on grass courts. (See the list of his titles)
