Novak Djokovic has been given some radical advice as he looks to complete his dream of winning a 25th Grand Slam title, with former British No 1 suggesting he needs to be bold and target success at Wimbledon.
Djokovic defied his doubters by beating two-time defending champion Jannik Sinner in the Australian Open semi-finals and he then pushed Carlos Alcaraz in the final, before losing against the Spaniard in four sets.
Now Rusedski has suggested Djokovic’s next target should be trying to win another title at Wimbledon, as he believes his chances of winning the title on the clay courts at Roland Garros will be slim.
That has inspired the 1997 US Open finalist to suggest Djokovic should consider skipping the French Open and get his mind focused on another title on his favoured grass courts.
“I think Novak should consider skipping the French Open and focusing on Wimbledon,” declared Rusedski, in an exclusive clip from the latest Off Court with Greg podcast for Tennis365.
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“Djokovic fans, there’s a lot of hope. Imagine if he plays this well at Wimbledon. He has a real shot for the title. French Open, I kind of feel like it’s out of his grasp just because of the physicality.
“But for all those Djokovic fans, what a two weeks it has been. He’s beaten Sinner, but hasn’t been able to do them back-to-back. And he shows on any given day at a Slam, he can beat one of the two guys. The problem is beating them back-to-back and that’s still the conundrum. That’s difficult to solve.
“He’s definitely going to play Indian Wells in Miami. That’s what I think he’s going to do. And you can play Rome in Madrid and take the French Open off because he can do whatever he wants to do, but it also depends on sponsorship commitments, how many matches he needs.
“He needs to play matches, but there is three weeks between [French Open and Wimbledon] now. It used to be two weeks in the old days.
“So he could actually play two lead-up tournaments week off and then play Wimbledon. It’s going to be interesting to see what he decides to do with his team.
“At 38 years young, going to be 39 in May, you think to yourself, you’ve got to save the body for the right things and for the slams. You believe you can win. So I’m going to be interested to watch this pace to see how many events and what he does going into Wimbledon.”
Rusedski went on to suggest Djokovic is now a strong contender to win Wimbledon after his impressive run to the final in Melbourne.
“After these two weeks, everybody puts him up there with a chance to win Wimbledon,” he added. “He is desperate to get number 25 and he’s been so close to doing it.
“He beat Alcaraz at last year at the Australian Open. This year he’s beaten Sinner, but he hasn’t been able to do it back-to-back. He’ll need a little bit of luck in the equation as well.
“When you’re 38 and the body doesn’t bounce back and he might have to make some decisions.”
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