Tim Henman has hit back at critics who claim Novak Djokovic should call time on his career, as he told Tennis365 that the Serbian legend has earned the right to continue playing for as long as he wants.<\/p>\n
Djokovic has made it clear that his last big target in tennis is winning a 25th Grand Slam title, which would move him one clear of Margaret Court in the all-time list of major winners.<\/p>\n
The Serbian admitted after his US Open defeat against Carlos Alcaraz<\/a> that he may no longer be able to beat the Spaniard and his great rival Jannik Sinner<\/a> in best-of-five-set matches, sparking rumours that he may be close to calling time on his career.<\/p>\n Yet former British No 1 Henman has insisted Djokovic should not be asked about retirement, as only he can make a call on the timing.<\/p>\n \u201cHe made four Grand Slam semi-finals this year and that is a phenomenal achievement, but when you have played five matches to get there and then you are coming up against these youngsters who are at the peak of their powers, he\u2019s not been able to come up with the solutions,\u201d Henman told Tennis365.<\/p>\n WATCH \u2013 Taylor Fritz talks to Tennis365 as he gives his verdict on Novak Djokovic\u2019s future<\/a><\/p>\n Every injury Novak Djokovic has suffered since start of 2024 revealed after Shanghai struggles<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cWhat I always say about these great players is they should play as long as they want. They have earned the right to play as long as they want.<\/p>\n \u201cIf they are enjoying it, keep playing. It\u2019s the best job in the world. You are a long time retired.<\/p>\n \u201cIt will be interesting to see how Djokovic approaches 2026, what his schedule is like and his level of play.<\/p>\n \u201cEverybody\u2019s journey is different. I can only reflect on why I stopped and I had the US Open in front of me and then the Davis Cup at home. I made the decision in about 24 hours and I had eight weeks ahead of me, finishing off at Wimbledon (in the Davis Cup).\u201d<\/p>\n Djokovic addressed the issue of retirement when he spoke at the Joy Forum proper to his heavy defeat against Sinner in the Six Kings Slam event taking play in Riyadh this week and he made it clear that he has no intention of quitting any time soon.<\/p>\n \u201cLongevity is one of my biggest motivations and I really want to see how far I can go,\u201d said Djokovic.<\/p>\n \u201cYou see across all the global sports, you know, LeBron James is still going strong. Cristiano Ronaldo, Tom Brady played until he was 40. I want to keep going.<\/p>\n \u201cI also want to live, I mean keep on playing professionally, to see the change that is coming for our sport and I\u2019m super excited about it.<\/p>\n \u201cThe things that are happening that I can\u2019t openly speak about at the moment, but I feel like in the next couple of years, I feel like tennis is a sport that can be and will be transformed.<\/p>\n \u201cI want to be part of that change and not just part of that change, but I want to be playing when we rejuvenate our sport and set the platform that is going to be there for decades to come.\u201d<\/p>\n He was then asked directly about retirement and he added: \u201cIt\u2019s not happening. I\u2019m sorry to disappoint them. It\u2019s just not happening.\u201d<\/p>\n The post Tim Henman gives Novak Djokovic pointed advice as retirement rumours swirl<\/a> appeared first on Tennis365<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Tim Henman has hit back at critics who claim Novak Djokovic should call time on his career, as he told Tennis365 that the Serbian legend has earned the right to continue playing for as long as he wants. Djokovic has made it clear that his last big target in tennis is winning a 25th Grand […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1189","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1189","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1189"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1189\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1189"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1189"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1189"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}More Tennis News<\/h2>\n