Novak Djokovic back to tennis and focussed on Wimbledon

For about a week, anyway.

“I am privileged and honored to open this year’s Wimbledon Centre Court as defending champion”.

“I needed that emotional, mental rest to recharge my batteries and get myself in a proper state of mind so I can start all over again”.

“Right now I think I’m 100 percent prepared”.

The 2002 champion at the All England Club lost his opening match at this year’s tournament, falling to Jarkko Nieminen 3-6, 6-3, 4-6, 6-0, 11-9 Monday in exactly 4 hours.

She is targeting the feat of winning all four majors in the same year, last achieved in women’s singles by Steffi Graf in 1988.

Most notably, the Serb lost the 2011 semi at Roland Garros to Roger Federer but was strong enough to then win at Wimbledon just four weeks later.

Before losing in Paris, the eight-time grand slam champion had been on a 28-match winning streak, and he has won 41 of his 44 matches this year.

“It’s not of my concern, honestly”, he said. “I’m aware of the adjustment that is required movement-wise, game-wise, and also mentally for the grass courts coming from clay courts”.

Like defending champion Petra Kvitova, who is No. 2, third-seed Halep won’t until Tuesday.

Victoria Azarenka is the first player to reach the second round of Wimbledon.

Her ability to overcome adversity, block out the noise, and focus on the task at hand, is bog reason why Williams is one of the best players in the history of the game. An early loss at Wimbledon can take her out of the Top 20 in the WTA rankings as she was a finalist here past year.

“But anyway, I mean, I feel much better than before”.

“I think it was a really tough decision for me to miss the two big tournaments during March”. “I don’t pretend to be any different just because I win tennis matches, so hopefully brands appreciate my approach and my likeability, because it’s who I am”. “I played golf”, he smiled as he recalled how he spent his time at home in Mallorca last week. “That’s what I think is the key if I want to beat her. But it’s still long way if I’m going to meet Serena here”. In an article on Wimbledon.com, ex- women’s tennis star and ESPN tennis analyst Chris Evert said she likes Williams’ chances to pull it off.

But the champion is wary of the potential pitfalls as he opens play on Centre Court at 1200GMT on a day when temperatures are expected to nudge the 30-degree mark.

Federer was edged out in five sets by Novak Djokovic in last year’s Wimbledon final. He also won the 2014 Australian Open. One week later than usual because of the extra off-week added in the schedule to give players more time to prepare for the grass.

“It goes to show that a year ago, I wasn’t playing great and I made the finals”.

“When I (saw) her before match”, Gasparyan said, “I thought, ‘Oh, my God”. It makes me feel like, Okay, I’ll be fine. She’s always trying to find a good form for the important points.

Murray, who won the title at Queen’s Club last week, is one of the favorites of British bookmakers to win Wimbledon a second time.

When the Williams sisters played doubles at the All England Club previous year, they stopped after three games in the second round, after Serena served four consecutive double-faults.

Djokovic beat Philipp Kohlschreiber of Germany in straight sets on the opening day of the tournament, playing the first match in the main stadium. Once I got healthy and kind of got the green light to just start training, that was my goal.