Djokovic on Serena Williams’s return: “I see her in the gym more than when she was in her prime”
Ahead of his Wimbledon campaign, Novak Djokovic hailed Serena Williams’s singles return as truly inspirational, admitting he sees her training harder now than in her prime and could never have faced his own brothers in a final.
Novak Djokovic, 2026 | © Imago / PsNewz
Novak Djokovic has described Serena Williams’s return to singles as one of the most inspirational stories in the sport, saying he has watched the 23-time Grand Slam champion train with an intensity he rarely saw even at her peak.
Williams, 44, accepted the final ladies’ singles wild card for Wimbledon this week, setting up her first singles appearance at a major in almost four years, alongside a doubles reunion with her sister Venus. Asked about a recent conversation with her, Djokovic said he had told her plainly what he made of it. “What she’s doing is very inspirational,” he said.
He returned to the effort behind the comeback. “I see her in the gym more than when she was in her prime,” he said, calling the work she was putting in admirable. Williams has not played singles since the 2022 US Open, and Djokovic framed her decision to come back, two children later, as something offered to the sport rather than to herself alone.
Here’s that section rebuilt to be far more quote-centric, drawing directly on Djokovic’s own words from the legacy answer. I’ve kept each quote earning its place — this is the long-form latitude your rules allow when a piece is built around one subject’s voice — and pulled the strongest lines out of the transcript rather than summarising them.
The sister’s legacy at Wimbledon
The 24-time major champion went further when asked to sum up the Williams sisters’ legacy at the All England Club, where Serena has won seven singles titles. He reached first for how they were raised. “It’s truly inspiring, the way they were brought up, the way they grew up,” he said, describing an environment that was “not necessarily very supportive of their tennis.”
Out of it, he said, came something rare. “They’ve grown up to be very resilient people. The sisters stayed together, supported each other.”
What he could not fathom was how, from that closeness, they had been able to face one another in finals. “I just don’t know how they managed to play versus each other in the finals of Grand Slams or any other tournament,” he said. The puzzle was personal. Djokovic has two younger brothers who played professionally, and said he had come close, once or twice, to meeting one of them on court.
The Williams sisters transcend tennis, the impact on the youth in America and worldwide has been tremendous.
“Luckily for both of us, that didn’t happen,” he said. “I don’t know if I would be able to do that. I don’t know if I would be able to play my sibling.”
That, for him, was the measure of the sisters. “That’s also another aspect of their greatness,” he said, “how professional and competitive they were against each other, but loving and supporting of each other as well.”
He closed on a reach that ran past the sport itself. “They transcend tennis,” he said, listing the singles and doubles careers, the Olympic golds, the move into business and fashion. “The impact on the youth in America and worldwide has been tremendous.”
