Djokovic ticked off by questions on Becker
WIMBLEDON, ENGLAND • Novak Djokovic, the defending Wimbledon champion and the clear favourite here, had a relatively uneventful straight-sets win against Philipp Kohlschreiber to open his Championships. The only spot of bother for the top-ranked Serbian came in his postmatch press conference, when he was asked about an interview his coach, Boris Becker, gave in which he talked about communicating with Djokovic during play. (Coaches can offer encouragement, but not tactical or strategic advice.) “I’m just trying to figure out what you want to achieve with this story,” Djokovic responded, saying the same reporter has asked him about it earlier in the week. “I don’t understand what you really want. Do you want to say I’m cheating, my team? I’m really trying to figure out what’s behind this.”
The response was that the questions were only about what Becker had said. Djokovic “I’m going to say that there are certain ways of communication which is encouragement, which is support, which is understanding the moment when to, you know, clap or say something that, you know, can lift my energy up, that can kind of motivate me to play a certain point. But it’s all within the rules.”
Then, he added: “I just don’t understand why this same story is repeating over and over for days.” Reporter “Because we keep finding examples of Boris saying it.” Among the sights at the All England Lawn Tennis Club is the Wimbledon Museum, which doubles as a shop during the tournament. A new exhibit this year is one of three white tennis balls signed by both Andy Murray and Fred Perry, the last two Britons to win Wimbledon: Perry in 1936 and Murray in 2013. They are the only known pieces of tennis memorabilia to have both signatures. The balls were a gift to Murray from tennis fan Gail Sargent, who gave him the balls signed by Perry when Murray was a young player. Following his win in 2013, Murray signed the balls too. Sargent died of cancer in 2010. Murray donated one of the balls to the museum in her memory, and a second will be raffled off to the public to raise money for the hospice where she received care at the end of her life. Australia’s Nick Kyrgios, who won his first-round match against Diego Schwartzman in straight sets, is known to be a fan of the NBA. He was asked post-match if he had watched much of the recent Finals, and he said he did. Reporter “Could you talk about what you could learn from LeBron and what you can learn from Steph Curry or the Warriors?” Kyrgios “Well, I don’t really like the Warriors, so I’m not going to talk about them. I think LeBron is, hands down, the best player in the world. I think any person looks up to him.” Reporter “What aspect of the Warriors don’t you like?” Kyrgios “I just don’t like the team. I don’t like the fact that they won. I wish the Boston Celtics won, but that’s not realistic, is it? I just don’t like the team.”
That’s some straight talk, right there. But who doesn’t like Steph Curry?