Less than an hour after leaving the court following his straight-sets loss to Jannik Sinner in the semifinals, Novak Djokovic said he didn’t believe this would be his final Wimbledon appearance.
The 38-year-old had an emotional exit as he walked off the court following the 6-3, 6-3, 6-4 defeat. He turned to wave to all sides of Centre Court as the crowd gave him a standing ovation. When asked whether he would be sad if that was the last match of his career at the All England Club, he said that he would be but that he didn’t think it was.
“Hopefully it’s not my last match on the Centre Court,” Djokovic said. “I’m not planning to finish my Wimbledon career today. So I’m planning to come back definitely at least one more time, play on the Centre Court, for sure.”
Djokovic, a 24-time major champion from Serbia, had hinted at his impending retirement following his French Open loss last month in the same round, also to Sinner, when he said it could have been “the last match ever I played here.”
“I’ve put everything I possibly can when it comes to training and preparing myself so I can play my best at Grand Slams,” Djokovic said.
“I think, regardless of the fact that I haven’t won a Grand Slam this year, or last year, I still feel like I continue to play my best tennis at Grand Slams. Those are the tournaments that I care about at this stage of my career the most.”
