{"id":28550,"date":"2026-06-30T18:31:09","date_gmt":"2026-06-30T18:31:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/28550\/"},"modified":"2026-06-30T18:31:09","modified_gmt":"2026-06-30T18:31:09","slug":"novak-djokovic-shares-honest-thoughts-on-aryna-sabalenkas-game-after-surprising-her-during-wimbledon-press-conference-international-sports-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/28550\/","title":{"rendered":"Novak Djokovic shares honest thoughts on Aryna Sabalenka\u2019s game after surprising her during Wimbledon press conference | International Sports News"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"NovakNovak Djokovic and Aryna Sabalenka (Image Via Getty) Novak Djokovic<\/a> unexpectedly walked into Aryna Sabalenka\u2019s post-match press conference at Wimbledon, turning a routine media session into one of the lighter moments of the tournament. A 77-second video shared by a Djokovic fan account on X showed the Serbian star stepping into the room after Sabalenka had finished speaking to reporters. Instead of ending the session, Sabalenka invited Djokovic into the conversation, leading to a playful exchange about their recent practice session that had everyone in the room laughing. The moment came as both stars continued their Wimbledon campaigns. <\/p>\n

Novak Djokovic jokes with Aryna Sabalenka after their Wimbledon practice session<\/p>\n

As Djokovic walked into the press room, Sabalenka quickly turned the attention toward him. Smiling, she asked him what he thought about practicing together and whether he liked her level on the court.She asked, \u201cWhat did you think about hitting with me? How do you see my level? Am I good?\u201dDjokovic paused for a second before delivering a joke that caught everyone by surprise.He replied, \u201cI think you have the potential. You\u2019re a really talented player. Can I be honest? You\u2019re lacking intensity on the court. You don\u2019t have enough intensity. It\u2019s too flat. You\u2019ve got to lighten up a little bit and put some power into it.\u201d The room immediately burst into laughter. Sabalenka, known as one of the biggest hitters in women\u2019s tennis, laughed along and reacted with animated hand gestures while sitting at the podium. The exchange showed the relaxed friendship the two stars have built despite competing in different tours.Before Djokovic entered the room, Sabalenka had already spoken positively about practicing with him. She explained that spending time with one of the greatest players in tennis gave her a chance to learn from his experience.<\/p>\n

Novak Djokovic and Aryna Sabalenka share light moment during busy Wimbledon week<\/p>\n

The funny interaction came during a packed opening week at Wimbledon. Sabalenka had already secured her place in the second round after beating qualifier Teodora Kostovic in straight sets. Djokovic also moved through his opener after defeating Wu Yibing in four sets, setting up a second-round meeting with Stefanos Tsitsipas. The X post that shared the clip also mentioned Djokovic\u2019s strong chances of reaching the third round, pointing to prediction market Kalshi, which gave him an 84% chance of advancing past Tsitsipas. While the statistic caught attention, it was the conversation between Djokovic and Sabalenka that became the highlight of the video.The exchange offered a different side of both players. Away from the pressure of Grand Slam matches, they joked comfortably with each other and showed the respect they have built through practice sessions. It was a short moment, but it reflected the friendly atmosphere that can still exist during one of tennis\u2019 biggest tournaments.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Novak Djokovic and Aryna Sabalenka (Image Via Getty) Novak Djokovic unexpectedly walked into Aryna Sabalenka\u2019s post-match press conference…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":28551,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[217,366,139,10701,10699,10700,3693,5031],"class_list":["post-28550","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-aryna-sabalenka","tag-aryna-sabalenka","tag-grand-slam","tag-novak-djokovic","tag-post-match-interview","tag-practice-sessions","tag-tennis-press-conference","tag-tennis-rivalry","tag-wimbledon-2023"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28550","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28550"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28550\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28551"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28550"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28550"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28550"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}