Novak Djokovic has come to the defence of Serena Williams after her Wimbledon comeback ended in a first-round defeat, urging those quick to judge the 44-year-old to instead celebrate what her return means for tennis.<\/p>\n
Speaking after his straight-sets win over Stefanos Tsitsipas<\/a> on Wednesday, the seven-time champion was clear that Williams\u2019s exit<\/a> should not overshadow the significance of her presence. \u201cWhat she\u2019s doing is incredible, it\u2019s epic,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019ve always been a fan of Serena.\u201d He acknowledged that a competitor of her stature would take little comfort from simply being back on court. \u201cKnowing how competitive she is, with the mind of a champion, she\u2019s not happy just showing up,\u201d he said. \u201cShe wants to win.\u201d<\/p>\n But Djokovic reserved his sharpest words for those who had greeted her performance with criticism, pointing to the length of her absence and the circumstances of her return. \u201cShe\u2019s 44, she has two children, and she hasn\u2019t played a match in so many years,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s normal that she\u2019s still not at her best in terms of movement. People need to cool off a little with the judgment and the criticism.\u201d<\/p>\n He drew a parallel with his own experience, and that of other long-dominant champions. \u201cPeople are used to seeing us at our best because they\u2019ve watched us dominate the sport for so many years,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n You have the greatest ever coming to play, bringing more attention to your sport, enjoy !<\/p>\n His appeal was, in the end, a simple one. \u201cJust enjoy the greatness of who she is and what she represents to the sport,\u201d he said. \u201cYou have the greatest ever coming to play, bringing more attention to your sport. I don\u2019t understand that kind of thinking and judgment.\u201d Williams\u2019s willingness to return, he added, was \u201can incredible gift for our sport.\u201d<\/p>\n Djokovic, who said he had watched part of her match, offered a note of hope on where she might appear next. While admitting \u201cnobody really knows what\u2019s going to happen,\u201d he suggested the US Open held obvious appeal. \u201cPlaying at home would be amazing, for her and for everyone else,\u201d he said. He signed off with an endorsement that doubled as a plea. \u201cI really support Serena, always have, and hopefully she\u2019s going to play more.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Novak Djokovic has come to the defence of Serena Williams after her Wimbledon comeback ended in a first-round…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":774534,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[442],"tags":[49,48,82,593],"class_list":["post-774533","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-sports","tag-tennis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/774533","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=774533"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/774533\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/774534"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=774533"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=774533"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=774533"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}