Novak Djokovic gives Wimbledon fitness update as he makes ‘planning to peak’ statement
Novak Djokovic has dismissed concerns over his fitness and readiness for Wimbledon following a lack of match practice, saying he has “a higher dose of confidence” due to his record at the grass-court Grand Slam.
The tennis great is coming off a disappointing French Open campaign as he was upset in the third round by 19-year-old Joao Fonseca with the Brazilian winning a marathon five-setter.
Djokovic played only one event before Roland Garros and that was at the Italian Open where he lost his opening match against Dino Prizmic and he has admitted that he knew that Paris would be “too big of a challenge for me”.
Despite that acknowledgement, the 39-year-old decided not to enter any grass-court warm-up events ahead of Wimbledon, leading some to suggest he made a mistake with seven-time major champion Mats Wilander saying the Serbian, along with Jannik Sinner and Alexander Zverev “are vulnerable in the first round”.
Instead, Djokovic – who struggled with a shoulder injury ahead of the French Open – played one match at the exhibition Giorgio Armani Tennis Classic at Hurlingham on Friday.
And the seven-time Wimbledon champion – who starts his 2026 campaign against Wu Yibing – says his number one goal was always to “peak” at the All England Club.
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“I think it is different in terms of just the overall physical state. I think I’m better prepared here than I was for Roland Garros,” he said.
“Obviously playing on grass, comparing to clay, you don’t need to exert as much physical effort. So that’s better for me. I always loved playing on grass. I have a very good score here, history, in Wimbledon. That gives me, of course, a higher dose of confidence coming into the tournament.
“Roland Garros was physically very draining, demanding. Three matches that I played, all of them went almost four hours. But I’m proud of the effort. I lost in the third round against a 20-years-younger opponent, fought until the end in the five sets almost, four and whatever hours that we played.
“Yeah, of course maybe not the result I was looking for, but the effort was there. Anyway, I was planning to peak at Wimbledon after the injury of the shoulder that kind of kept me away from the tour for several months.
“I knew not having any matches, official matches on the tour, going pretty much straight into Roland Garros, is going to be quite difficult. Maybe too big of a challenge for me at the moment. That’s what happened.
“But I knew that’s going to give me a bit more time to get myself prepared for Wimbledon. So hopefully I’ll have a good tournament here.”
