{"id":313537,"date":"2023-07-03T22:36:49","date_gmt":"2023-07-03T22:36:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=313537"},"modified":"2023-07-03T23:03:10","modified_gmt":"2023-07-03T23:03:10","slug":"not-great-djokovic-turns-groundsman-at-wimbledon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=313537","title":{"rendered":"'Not great': Djokovic turns groundsman at Wimbledon"},"content":{"rendered":"

Novak Djokovic's<\/a> bid for another Wimbledon<\/a> win got off to a slippery start when inclement conditions stopped play during his first round match.<\/p>\n

Rain fell on the first day of this year's Grand Slam, forcing a lengthy halt.<\/p>\n

The tennis player turned groundsman, attempting to dry the SW19 grass with a towel \u2013 much to the amusement of the courtside spectators.<\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> Demon cagey over girlfriend's awkward Wimbledon draw\ufeff<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> Videos expose fuming England's 'spirit' hypocrisy<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> Blues pick Gutho, Walker in surprise shake-up<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Ground staff used leaf blowers to dry the surface as well as covers to stop further rain.<\/p>\n

However, the scenes might have been avoided entirely had the $190 million roof been closed sooner.<\/p>\n

\"Novak<\/p>\n

"Yes, blow, blow. Blow the air. We need everybody's help," Djokovic joked.<\/p>\n

Djokovic eventually beat world No.68 player Pedro Cachin of Argentina \u2013 6-3, 6-3, 7-6(4) \u2013 to continue an incredible run at the All England Club.<\/p>\n

Watch Wimbledon 2023 live and free on<\/strong><\/em> 9now<\/strong><\/em><\/a>. Alternatively, you can stream every match live, ad-free and on demand on<\/strong><\/em> Stan Sport<\/strong><\/em><\/a>, with centre court in 4K UHD.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

However, he expressed his bemusement with the situation he said was not ideal for players or fans.<\/p>\n

"The conditions were not great under the roof, it was still slippery. I think it was definitely frustrating for the crowd waiting for us to come out onto the court," he said.<\/p>\n

\"Novak<\/p>\n

"Us players, we both wanted to play, but the conditions were not great. Obviously still slippery under the roof.\u00a0<\/p>\n

"Once the roof was open it was a different story. After five, 10 minutes we were out and about.\u00a0<\/p>\n

"This is the holy grail, the temple of tennis, so to say. This court is something special and every time I come out I normally come out with racquets not with towels," he laughed.<\/p>\n

"But it was fun to do something different, a little bit of a strange feeling, but hopefully you guys liked it."<\/p>\n

\"Aussie<\/p>\n

Djokovic will face Australia's Jordan Thompson in the second round<\/p>\n

It will be the biggest challenge of Thompson's career to date against the 23-time Grand Slam winner, who is looking to equal Roger Federer's record eight Wimbledon wins.<\/p>\n

Thompson earned an epic come-from-behind win over America's Brandon Nakashima, coming from two sets down to triumph at SW19.<\/p>\n

The Sydneysider looked like he would bomb out of the first round after going down 2-6, 2-6 but bounced back to win three straight sets 6-4, 7-6(4), 6-3.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The world No.70 will face a seemingly insurmountable task against Djokovic, who hasn't lost at Wimbledon in 2183 days or since 2013.<\/p>\n

"I call it the home of tennis, it's unbelievable here," said Thompson.<\/p>\n

"Even if you're practising, no matter what, you do have to pinch yourself because you've got to remember where you come from."<\/p>\n

For a daily dose of the best of the breaking news and exclusive content from Wide World of Sports, subscribe to our newsletter by<\/strong><\/em> clicking here<\/strong><\/em><\/a>!<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Novak Djokovic's bid for another Wimbledon win got off to a slippery start when inclement conditions stopped play during his first round match. Rain fell […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":313539,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/313537"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=313537"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/313537\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":313543,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/313537\/revisions\/313543"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/313539"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=313537"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=313537"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=313537"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}