Vijay Amritraj reached the Wimbledon quarterfinals twice, in 1973 and 1981. | Photo Credit: JOTHI RAMALINGAM B

Wimbledon is a tournament very close to Vijay Amritraj’s heart. The Indian tennis legend twice made the quarterfinals of the grass Major - in 1973 and 1981.

In the Open Era, Ramesh Krishnan (1986) is the only other Indian who has gone that far in singles at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club.

So, whenever the discussion revolves around the prestigious grass court event, Amritraj shares his thoughts with candour.

Ahead of Wimbledon 2026, which begins on Monday, the 72-year-old Amritraj, a JioStar expert, spoke to select media on a variety of topics on the JioStar Media Day.

Excerpts

Q: Serena Williams is returning to tennis at the age of 44. What are your thoughts on her comeback and realistic expectations?

The only analogy that I can think of is Muhammad Ali coming back to win the world boxing championships. Now, as far as Serena and Venus are concerned, especially Serena, the fact is time doesn’t wait for anyone.

She has won more than any human being on the planet as far as tennis is concerned. She has truly been the greatest female player in modern history.

What would motivate her to come back at age 44 against younger players? It’s truly a long shot for her to perform similar to what she’s done in the past. Expectations for herself will be high.

Or is it just the joy of playing tennis? I think it is this. She’ll be very happy with doubles, just playing because she wants her daughters to see her playing. I understand that bit.

But at the end of the day, the reality of trying to win a Major at 44 with the family is not impossible but certainly improbable.

Q. No female player has won Wimbledon back-to-back since 2016. What do you think makes it so hard to repeat the success on grass?

Ever since the Williams sisters left, it has been more about the success of a variety of players being pretty much at the same standard. Yes, Iga Swiatek had a bit of a great run where she was unbeatable for a while. But at the end of the day, the girls are much closer in standard, performance and temperament than the way Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner have kind of moved a little bit beyond the rest of the men’s bunch.

When we look at the girls today, it’s very hard to truly pick a winner.

Aryna Sabalenka was overpowering players like Serena did, or way back Lindsay Davenport. When you look at Sabalenka, on grass, she would be a clear favourite. She has the best chance to win. She had a one-dimensional game and she’s starting to mix it up. Her serve is definitely better. But other players have found a chink in her armour.

Women’s tennis is quite wide open. Upsets can happen in the early stages of the tournament, especially on the surface, even though the grass today is not what the grass we played on way back when it was much quicker with lighter balls.

Thankfully, it’s not a clear two-player rivalry like we’ve had in men’s tennis over the last few decades. It’ll be great to see who ends up holding up under the pressure and on the surface.

Q. Not only Alcaraz but quite a few other prominent players will miss this year’s tournament due to injuries. There have been major concerns about the tour’s scheduling. Do you think something needs to be done in this regard?

The top 20 players have always got the choice. They’re independent contractors. In 52 weeks, if they play Davis Cup, and a lot of them don’t and needless to say, they don’t play doubles, if the top 20 players play 15 tournaments, that’s a lot.

That would be somewhere in the range of 22 weeks over the 52-week period. When you go back in time, we were playing double of that. Now, it doesn’t matter.

The game has become incredibly powerful, athletic, fitness-oriented, and all of that makes a huge difference. But they have the ability to take time off. They have to play the nine Masters 1000 on the ATP Tour and the four Grand Slams. That’s your commitment and that is 13 tournaments. So, you schedule your rest of the year according to that.

But that doesn’t necessarily mean the rest of the players should be left out or not having opportunities to play.

Q. Coming to the men’s competition. Do you think Novak Djokovic’s era of dominance is over because all these younger guys are now Grand Slam winners?

Everyone feels now they have a good shot against whether it’s Djokovic or Alexander Zverev, or by keeping Sinner out there for a long period of time if there’s the heat. So, all the players feel that they really have a chance to win a Slam.

But Djokovic never really left the game like Serena did. Djokovic has been there and seen the growth of these younger guys and what Djokovic has is his mental capacity and his incredible temperament. The fact that he’s won so much, you have to put him in the driver’s seat when the match gets tight.

The biggest difficulty for Djokovic would be after playing two long five-setters, how do you recover for the third one? And that’s the hardest part of age and legs.

Nobody looks after his body better than Djokovic. He’s just a spectacular athlete. And so, when I look at him, I think this is one guy you can never bet against. He will still come in there as one of the favourites.

Q. With Alcaraz out, do you think it makes it easier for Sinner to defend his Wimbledon title?

You have to win seven matches against players of the highest quality, irrespective of who it is and I always feel that just because you’re playing somebody unseeded in the first or second round, let’s not forget that you’re playing on a fresh surface that you don’t see all year.

Whether you like it or not, there is some degree of getting used to the grass under your feet.

Even though the grass is actually not what it used to be and the difference between grass and clay is not as monumental as it used to be when Bjorn Borg used to win.

When these guys come and have that under their feet, it takes them a match or two to get into it. So, you may see them lose the second set and then win in four sets. All of that is going to matter in the early stages.

The heat and the thickness of the grass will matter in the early stages. All these things give the lesser player an opportunity to have an upset and you will see some upsets in the first week like you did in Paris.

(Catch Wimbledon 2026, from June 29 - July 12, LIVE on JioHotstar and Star Sports Network.)

Published on Jun 27, 2026