Tennis star Novak Djokovic is worried about his beloved sport. Djokovic, 37, told reporters that “tennis is endangered” after his Centre Court win at Wimbledon 2024 on Saturday, July 6. “If we don’t do something about it, globally or collectively, paddle — pickleball in the States — they’re gonna convert all the tennis clubs into paddle and pickleball,” the athlete told reporters after his match, according to X account @TheTennisLetter.
Earlier in the press conference, Djokovic shared his thoughts on the state of tennis as a whole, saying he thinks the sport needs improvements to grow its audience. “Tennis, on one hand, is in a good place, but at the same time, when we look at Formula 1 for example and what they’ve done in terms of marketing, in terms of growth of the sport — in terms of the races around the world and how popular they are — I think we need to do a better job on our respective tours,” he said. The Serbian athlete noted that “we are lucky to be very historic and a very global sport,” adding, “I think there’s a huge space for growth.
We’re quite fractioned as a sport.” “There are quite a bit of things for us to collectively look at and try to improve it,” he continued. “We need to grow the number of players that live from this sport.
” Djokovic also explained that pickleball — despite tennis being the “king or queen of all racquet sports” — is more “economical” for club owners, which persuades them to make.
