Junior tennis star Jessica Matthews has revealed how she came to kick Novak Djokovic off the Wimbledon practice courts at Aorangi Park. The 19-year-old Brit has been rubbing shoulders with some of tennis’ big names over the past two weeks, employed as the only female hitting partner at the Championships.
Players at SW19 are kept to strict practice schedules, which even extends to seven-time champion Djokovic, aiming to match Roger Federer’s record at the summer Slam ahead of his semi-final with Lorenzo Musetti.
Back at home on summer holidays from her studies at the University of Iowa, Matthews’ task at the All England Club is to help players practice, while getting an up-close lesson from tennis’ biggest names.
But when Djokovic was running five minutes over his time slot, Matthews made herself known to the Serbian star, as she was due to use that court next.
“Sorry, sorry, I’ll leave,” Djokovic said as Matthews recalled their interaction, as he put his hands up to apologise before packing up his equipment.
“I was due to be hitting with [Danish player] Clara Tauson,” Matthews told the i. “We only had a half-hour hit, so we looked at each other and were like, ‘I think it’s time’. We slowly started creeping on and Djokovic was like sorry, sorry. He was hitting with his son Stefan. It was a crazy experience, kicking off Djokovic when everyone is watching him play.
“Some days I’ve been playing a total of six to seven hours. The legs have been a bit shaky. But when you’re on your sixth hour of the day, your legs are completely exhausted, you can’t turn down another hit because you don’t know when you’ll get to hit with somebody that good again.”
Matthews has been playing college tennis in America alongside her economics and finance degree and after hitting with WTA stars such as Venus Williams, Ons Jabeur and Heather Watson, Nick Kyrgios slid into her DMs after she had watched the Aussie train with Djokovic.
“I was basically stood right next to them,” Matthews explained. “Kyrgios DM’d me afterwards asking for the videos I took. He was like: ‘Hey thanks for coming, do you mind sending them to me?’. I was like: ‘Of course!”
Matthews can spend up to 10 hours a day at Wimbledon getting quite the workout, but she knows the experience is invaluable, even if she missed out on playing alongside another Brit in Emma Raducanu due to the adverse weather.
“I was meant to hit with Emma Raducanu but the rain came,” she added. “I was sad about that. Andy Murray is super nice. I also messaged his brother Jamie asking about the Queen’s tournament where he’s the tournament director, about being a potential hitter there next year. He recognised me and came up to me here the other day.
“Heather Watson’s been so sweet on the court too. We did some doubles practice and she was joking that we should play together. I was like, count me in!”
