Wilander: "If Novak keeps playing like this at Wimbledon..."

One of the main questions concerned Novak Djokovic and his performances at Roland Garros this year, specifically what Wilander thinks his chances are at the next Grand Slam, Wimbledon.

“If he plays this well here, then he will be very difficult to beat at Wimbledon. Wimbledon will always be his best chance to win. And especially now, when Alcaraz is not playing, Wimbledon is the easiest major for him to win. And when he’s playing as well as he has been here, then I don’t think we need to worry,” Wilander told reporters in Paris.

The Swede was then asked to elaborate on that view.

“Well, it’s experience, of course, but it’s also that fewer players really know how to play on grass. It’s very difficult to play on grass because you didn’t grow up on it. A lot of players approach grass the same way they approach hard courts, for example, but you can’t do that—you have to play a little differently. The bounce is lower, and you have to stay alive in rallies in a different way than on hard courts. And yes, you need experience for that, and in my view there aren’t many players with extensive experience on grass courts.

So at Wimbledon there are probably far fewer players Novak can lose to, whereas here there are probably 15 to 20 players who could cause him problems. At Wimbledon, I’d say that number is perhaps five to ten.”

He also spoke about Rafael Jodar, the Spaniard who reached the Roland Garros quarterfinals on his tournament debut.

“He makes a lot of decisions to come to the net and play drop shots. So it's actually strange that he has managed to play this well while doing all those other things, because you would think of him more as a baseline player who just hits backhands and waits for a forehand. But he’s actually not that. He’s much more than that. To me, that’s incredible. At that age, it’s incredible,” Wilander said, before continuing:

“It looks like he already has a lot in his game. Yes, I’m sure experience will help him. Playing five-set matches will help him the next time he plays a five-set match. You can’t replace experience, of course. It will always help any player, but that doesn’t mean you automatically play better just because you have more experience. It simply means you have experience, right? Sometimes experience can even be negative—if you’ve lost a few five-set matches, that’s not easy either. But no, for me, he’s the complete package.”

Another story that made headlines at the start of the second week of Roland Garros was the official return of Serena Williams to the WTA Tour, as she is set to compete in doubles at Queen’s.

“I think that’s really good for tennis. Obviously, it’s good for her, but I think it’s great for tennis. I assume she’s playing doubles at Queen’s so that she can eventually play singles at Wimbledon, which would be incredible at the age of 44. We can’t expect her to go very far. That’s too much pressure—to think Serena will come back and be the Serena she once was. I know people will talk about that, but that’s too much for me,” the Swede concluded.