Djokovic Admits He 'Maybe Should Have Lost To Roger In 2019' After Close Wimbledon Loss

Monday, 17 July 2023 at 05:00

Updated at Wednesday, 07 May 2025 at 15:31

byZachary Wimer

Novak Djokovic was as classy as ever following his loss to Carlos Alcaraz in the 2023 Wimbledon final.

During his speech, the Serbian player came to terms with the loss by pointing out that he's won multiple close matches at Wimbledon throughout his career. One of the most prominent close ones was the 2019 Wimbledon Championships final against Roger Federer.

It is one of the crazies finals ever played. It was the last final at SW19 for Roger Federer and probably one of the most painful defeats that the 20-time Grand Slam champion ever had at the event.

The Swiss legend had two match points in that match but allowed Djokovic to battle his way out of that and eventually win the match. The turnaround was about as unlikely as it can get at Wimbledon, especially since it was against a player who won eight trophies in London.

The match was mentioned by Djokovic during his trophy ceremony interview. He mentioned the victory as something to be grateful for because he was able to win that match even though he probably shouldn't have won it.

"Obviously, you never like to lose matches like this, but I guess when all the emotions are settled, I have to still be very grateful because I won many, many tight and close matches in the past year."

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"To name a few, 2019 against Roger in that [Wimbledon] final where I was match points down. Maybe I should have lost a couple of finals that I won. So I think this is even-steven."

Obviously, you can't win every match, even though Djokovic tries to do that. That's what happened against Alcaraz, and Djokovic kind of came to terms with losing a close match because there have been plenty of those that went his way.

Djokovic was very emotional during the ceremony, struggling to hold back tears towards the end of his speech when talking about his kids. During his post-match press conference, he talked about the previous wins, too, thinking that this loss made it fair.

"Yeah, I mean, as I said on the court, I've won some epic finals that I was very close to losing. Maybe this is kind of a fair-and-square deal I guess to lose a match like this for me here. Even though it hurts, it's never easy to lose a close match."