Novak Djokovic goes back on his word after Wimbledon tennis rival rant

Novak Djokovic has quickly gone back on his comments from earlier this year.

Novak Djokovic has performed a hefty U-turn ahead of the US Open following a lengthy rant about pickleball last month. During his run to the Wimbledon final in July, Djokovic hit out at the emergence of pickleball, stating its growth was a ‘threat’ to tennis. Speaking during the Championship, the Serb said: “Now we have the paddle or padel, as you call it in the States, that is growing and emerging. “People kind of have fun with it and say, Yeah, but tennis is tennis. Tennis is the king or queen of all the racket sports, that's true. But on a club level, tennis is endangered. If we don't do something about it, as I said, globally or collectively, padel, pickleball in States, they're going to convert all the tennis clubs into padel and pickleball because it's just more economical.

He continued: “In the grand scheme of things, I feel like we need to address all of these, I feel like, challenges and issues for us really. They have been out there for a while, but I don't think we have been addressing them in a proper way.” However, despite his brutal assessment of the sport, Djokovic is set to try his hand at pickleball ahead of the US Open later this month. The 24-time Grand Slam winner will take on world No.1 Jannik Sinner in an exhibition match as part of The HEAD’s NYC Mash Up later this week. It’s reported pickleball participation has increased a whopping 202 per cent in just three years, but Djokovic won’t be the first tennis icon to try his hand at an alternative racket discipline.

Novak Djokovic blasted the emergence of pickleball at last month's Wimbledon.

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Maria Sharapova, Andre Agassi, Steffi Graf and John McEnroe have all featured in events before, with the latter adamant both tennis and pickleball will be able to co-exist. Speaking on pickleball’s recent emergence, McEnroe said: “When I compare it to tennis, you see athleticism that is incredible on the men’s and women’s side. “So I look at it as the king of all racket sports. Everything else is below it, it’s just a question of how much below it?”

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