Jessica Matthews, 19, has been mixing with the stars during her stint as a hitting partner at Wimbledon
Novak Djokovic was running five minutes over his allotted time slot on the Wimbledon practice courts at Aorangi Park, but kept hitting. Hovering at the edge of the court, 19-year-old Jessica Matthews started to slowly make her way into his line of sight.
“Sorry, sorry, I’ll leave,” Djokovic said, putting his hands up in apology, and headed to pack up his rackets.
When Matthews became a hitting partner at Wimbledon, kicking seven-time champion Djokovic off the court was not on her bingo card. But needs must.
“I was due to be hitting with [Danish player] Clara Tauson,” Matthews tells 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.”
Matthews has been getting accustomed to rubbing shoulders with some of the biggest names in tennis for the past two years in her role at Wimbledon. Her job is quite simple: help the best players in the world practise during the most high-pressure fortnight of the year.
Matthews grew up in Hertfordshire and did well as a junior before heading to the University of Iowa to study economics and finance, as well as play college tennis.
She is on her summer holidays now and, here at Wimbledon over the last three weeks, Matthews has been putting in a shift. She is the only female hitting partner employed by Wimbledon, so is in high demand.
“Some days I’ve been playing a total of six to seven hours,” she says. “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.”
Each session is different. Sometimes she delivers serves over and over again for those that want to hone their returning. She thumps baseline shots across the net by the dozen too, and offers up backhand slices to the best of her ability. Whatever the player wants to work on, she is their woman.
While a small number of top female players travel with a hitting partner, and some favour hitting with men – to try to match the speed and power they experience against the best female opponents – Matthews says she hits a flatter ball, mirroring the majority of women on tour.
Matthews is speaking to i on a drizzly afternoon at the Aorangi Park courts, after hitting with two-time Wimbledon finalist Ons Jabeur. She has also fulfilled appointments with Spain’s Paula Badosa and British veteran Heather Watson, to name a few.
Matthews might as well call this her second home, as she spends up to 10 hours at the All England Club a day, with access to player locker rooms, restaurants and even sometimes sneaking onto Centre Court to watch the action.
Her favourite moments have come across at practice though. Matthews swallowed her nerves last year during a hit with five-time Wimbledon champion Venus Williams – which she says remains her most intense session to date. She also befriended former world No 1 Victoria Azarenka and Nick Kyrgios even slid into her DMs (direct messages) on Instagram after she watched his practice session with Djokovic.
“I was basically stood right next to them,” Matthews says. “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!”
Above all, she feels like the experience is helping her become a better player – because she is practicing with the best in the world, and gaining opportunities to get top level coaching too.
“Heather’s coach helped me adapt my ball toss. He said he could tell where I was going to serve based on my toss, so we fixed that. [France’s] Diane Parry’s coach was really nice talking to me about the tour, how it’s difficult in the opening stages but you get used to it once you start getting up in the ranks. It was good advice.”
Matthews hopes she will one day be back at Wimbledon as a player herself. For now, getting to know the British pack has been one of the best ways of getting to grips with the pressure involved with competing at Wimbledon: “I was meant to hit with Emma Raducanu but the rain came. 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!”
