By Marc McGowan
Novak Djokovic made a significant concession after his significant defeat on Sunday to the new king of Wimbledon.
The 24-time grand slam champion, widely considered – and statistically indisputably – the greatest tennis player of all time, conceded he was not at his Wimbledon conqueror Carlos Alcaraz’s or world No.1 Jannik Sinner’s level.
At age 37, Djokovic is the underdog again.
That much was obvious watching Alcaraz dish out a straight-sets hiding to him on the most famous court in the world. He bashed him from the baseline. Out-served him. Was better at the net. Hit more winners. Committed fewer errors.
“Just overall, the way I felt on the court today against him, I was inferior on the court,” Djokovic said.
“That’s it. He was a better player. He played every single shot better than I did. I don’t think I could have done something much more. Try to pump myself up maybe, yes. Get the crowd involved. That’s what was happening in the third. That got me going a little bit.”
Djokovic stretches for a forehand.Credit: AP
Sinner destroyed him in very similar fashion in the Australian Open semi-finals, when Djokovic failed to earn a break point for the first time in his grand slam career.
“I was, in a way, shocked with my level, in a bad way,” Djokovic said after the Sinner loss. “I guess this is one of the worst grand slam matches I’ve ever played.”
The problem with all this is that Alcaraz and Sinner are ascending, while Djokovic is going the other way.
Djokovic has won at least four titles in every season bar two since 2007, and in one of those he missed the second half of it with a right elbow setback. He still won two in both of those other years, yet Sunday’s final was his first of 2024.
The former world No.1 has losses this year to players ranked 123rd, 32nd and 44th.
Djokovic rebounded from his five-set Wimbledon defeat to Alcaraz a year ago to win the US Open and the ATP Tour Finals in Turin, Italy.
In between, Sinner beat him twice, but Djokovic trumped the Italian to hold up the trophy in Turin.
That is why many people still felt he was the man to beat in Melbourne, where he had been nigh on invincible for five years. But he suffered a shock loss to Alex de Minaur at the ATP Cup, the same player he mauled 12 months earlier in the same country.
That result was dismissed, and explained away as not being relevant because it was only a lead-in event to a major.
Then, an 18-year-old Croatian qualifier, Dino Prizmic, took a set from him in the first round of the Australian Open. He almost went two-sets-to-one down in the next round to Australia’s Alexei Popyrin.
Djokovic is so good, even at 37, that he wriggled out of those situations and improved. He belted Adrian Mannarino for the loss of only three games later in the same tournament, so people thought order was restored.
Maybe even Djokovic did. Then the Sinner defeat happened.
“The whole tournament I haven’t really played close to my best [except] against Mannarino,” Djokovic said. “Most of the matches I was not playing up to par, so to say, the way I play here in Australia normally.”
There have been other concerning signs off the court since.
Djokovic parted ways with coach Goran Ivanisevic in April then long-time fitness coach Marco Panichi only weeks later.
He also revealed on Nick Kyrgios’ podcast, Good Trouble, that he was increasingly struggling to be away from his children, Stefan and Tara, and wife Jelena, who were all with him at Wimbledon this past fortnight.
“The little Novak, the four-year-old Novak, who started playing tennis in Kopaonik in Serbia, is still inside and still in love with the sport and is still so hungry for more,” Djokovic said.
“But at the same time, there’s probably this more mature Novak, father and a husband, who is, ‘Come on, man. There are other things in life as well.’”
Djokovic was emotional speaking about his kids again after the Wimbledon final, at the end of a tournament in which he played an imaginary violin for his daughter’s benefit following each win.
The tipping point has arrived for him. He long ago became motivated almost solely on grand slam success, and that suddenly looks far more elusive than even 10 months ago in New York.
Even Kyrgios, his new best friend on tour, tweeted: “Wow. Love Djokovic, but is this maybe the first time we can say the ‘changing of the guard’?!?!”
Djokovic’s recuperative powers remain intact, as evidenced by his swift recovery from knee surgery last month, but he admits himself that his body in general does not respond as quickly between matches as it once did.
The Olympic Games in Paris is his next priority, before he tries to defend his US Open title in six weeks’ time.
“I’m hoping I can be at my best on those two tournaments,” Djokovic said.
“To have a chance to beat these guys in grand slam latter stages or Olympics, I’m going to have to play much better than I did today and feel much better than I did today. I’m going to work on it.
“It’s not something I haven’t experienced before ever in my life. I’ve had so many different experiences throughout my career. In the face of adversity, normally I rise, and I learn and get stronger. That’s what I’m going to do.”
Doubting Djokovic is a dangerous game, but even he is starting to do it.
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