Stan Wawrinka on Thursday praised the Serbian tennis star Novak Djokovic ahead of their clash at Wimbledon on Friday (July 7).
The 38-year-old has won three Grand Slam titles and made the last 32 at Wimbledon by seeing off Argentina’s 29th seed Tomas Martin Etcheverry 6-3, 4-6, 6-4, 6-2.
The Swiss has faced Novak 26 times in his long tennis career but could only manage to beat the Serb six times.
"Have you seen him play (smiling)? Give me one weakness. I think he's been an amazing player to play. He's the perfect player. If you look, everything is so clean. He play the perfect shot in the right moment. I love to watch him play, as much as I was loving to watch Roger play," Wawrinka said at a press conference.
“I will enjoy it if I don’t get killed,” he said. “Novak is an amazing champion. I am happy to get the chance to play him on grass before I finish my career.
“It will be a big challenge and I will have to play at a high level.”
Wawrinka remains one of the very players to have beaten Djokovic twice in Grand Slam finals, at the 2015 French Open and 2016 US Open. However, this will be the first time the two will meet one another on grass.
“He took away two Grand Slams from me. That’s the role he played, beating me in two Grand Slam finals,” joked Djokovic after booking his place in the third round on Wednesday.
“No, I like Stan a lot. He’s a great person. Really always inspirational what he’s doing at his age. He’s almost 40 years old and he still keeps going strong. That’s something that not many people can do.”
Djokovic defeated Jordan Thompson in the second round of Wimbledon and will now be continuing his title defence against the Swiss on Friday.