CLARE BALDING made a cheeky dig at Novak Djokovic when discussing the seven-time Wimbledon champion’s next opponent.
Balding, 53, replaced Sue Barker as the Beeb’s main anchor for the Championships last year.
Yesterday she presented coverage alongside pundits Tim Henman and Nick Kyrgios.
The trio watched Lorenzo Musetti book a semi-final date with Djokovic, beating Taylor Fritz in five sets.
After his fourth round win over Holger Rune, Djokovic took a pop at the Centre Court crowd after they had been backing his opponent with chants of “Ruuuune”.
The Serbian claimed that they showed him “disrespect” – before cheekily wishing them a “gooood night”.
Djokovic had been set to face “honorary Brit” Alex de Minaur – who dates British No1 Katie Boulter – in the quarter-finals.
But he instead received a bye, after De Minaur was forced to withdraw with a hip injury.
Following Musetti’s win over Fritz yesterday, Balding discussed his upcoming semi-final with Henman and Kyrgios.
Former semi-finalist Henman, 49, said of the Italian: “To run away with the fifth set, I want to say it will give him a lot of confidence going into the semi-finals but he faces the seven-time champion!”
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Balding then cheekily responded: “He is up against a man who has been running up hills today – we’ve seen Novak Djokovic running up a very steep hill.
“I’ll show you that in a second because I’d love to hear what you think. My one fear for this is Novak Djokovic faces a man called Muuuuusetti!”
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Her throwback to the “Ruuuune” of Monday night chants drew chuckles from Henman and Kyrgios.
Moments later, the Aussie chipped in: “I think today having that day off for Novak and tomorrow really helps his chances. Anytime you get a day off playing best of five, you’re going to take it.”
The former Wimbledon finalist then gushed about the impressive state of Italian tennis, with Musetti, Jannik Sinner and Matteo Berrettini leading the charge on the men’s side – and finalist Jasmine Paolini producing brilliant results in the women’s game.
Balding then swooned: “I’m really looking forward to that as a match. I’ve fallen in love with Musetti, I just have, I think he’s a beautiful player!”
PRIZE MONEY for the 2024 Wimbledon Championships is a new record – and puts the grass-court Slam at the top of the tree.
The All England Club will dish out £50million across all the events – an increase of £5.3m and 11.9 per cent on last year, where singles champions Carlos Alcaraz and Marketa Vondrousova picked up £2.35m each.
However, the king and queen of grass this July will collect an extra £350,000 – taking the winner’s earnings to £2.7m.
Here is the breakdown for the 2024 Wimbledon singles prize money:
