Novak Djokovic has been told that it is his mentality, not his physicality, that will prevent him from winning a 25th Grand Slam.
The Serbian is undoubtedly towards the end of his career but still continues to go deep in tournaments, reaching the semi-final in all three slams this year.
But with the rise of Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz, there is much debate over whether Djokovic, the most successful male player of all time, will ever win another slam.
Djokovic himself has suggested his body moves a little slower but the 38-year-old has been told that his inability to win is in his head, not his body.
“From my opinion, is only here,” Patrick Mouratoglou said whilst pointing to his head on the All on the Table podcast.
“Only because the guy wins three grand slams and in the final of the fourth, three months later, the guy is nowhere. It’s impossible.
“He didn’t lose his tennis he’s just realised that he would be the best of all time because Rafa [Nadal] was out.
Djokovic surpassed Nadal for the record number of slams won after his victory at the 2023 French Open. Since then, Djokovic has won just one more slam as well as the 2024 Olympics.
“You know the thing he was fighting for 15 years, suddenly there is no more goal,” Mouratoglou continued. “So I think he completely lost the motivation, which is easy to understand. It’s normal.
“He got motivated again just for the Olympics, and then he was a beast at the Olympics.”
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Mouratoglou did suggest that the one motivation Djokovic has left is to show he can still mix it with the top of the game, as seen in his match at Roland Garros against Sinner.
“I don’t know if you saw his match against Sinner at Roland Garros but I felt he was more in demonstration mode than really wanting to win. I exaggerate a little
“If he really wanted to win, I feel he would have won. That’s crazy, but he’s such an unbelievable competitor, I think he would have won.
“But he just wanted to feel I can beat, I can potentially beat those guys. They’re not miles away from me. And I want to, I want to enjoy the moment. I want the crowd to like me. I want to do a nice press conference after. I exaggerate but I felt this the whole match.”
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