Former WTA Tour star Nadia Petrova has questioned Novak Djokovic\u2019s ambition of retiring after the 2028 Olympic Games.<\/p>\n
The long-term future of Djokovic<\/a> has been a regular point of discussion within tennis in recent months, especially with his \u2018Big 3\u2019 counterparts, Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal, having left the game in the past few years.<\/p>\n The 38-year-old has played a limited schedule in recent seasons, contesting just 13 events in 2025, and has not won a Grand Slam title since 2023, with younger rivals Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner dominant since the start of 2024.<\/p>\n However, Djokovic is still competing at an incredibly high level and, despite his limited schedule, finished 2025 ranked fourth in the world, winning two titles and reaching the semi-final of all four Grand Slam tournaments.<\/p>\n The Serbian revealed earlier in 2025 that his planned retirement was at the Los Angeles Olympics in 2028, having memorably struck gold at the Paris 2024 Games last summer<\/a>.<\/p>\n Asked about his future following his victory at the Hellenic Championship in Athens in November, Djokovic again reiterated that wish<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve always had this throughout my life and my career, I\u2019ve always had a schedule in my head for a year or more, what I want, how I want it,\u201d he told reporters.<\/p>\n \u201cSince I\u2019ve achieved absolutely all possible goals, I said about the 2028 Olympics because I wanted to play for so many more years. So maybe ending up at the Olympic Games with the Serbian flag, that would be nice.\u201d<\/p>\n Novak Djokovic warned it \u2018doesn\u2019t get any easier\u2019 as Grand Slam hopes questioned<\/a><\/p>\n 2025 WTA Awards: Coco Gauff, Jessica Pegula honoured as coach of the year also revealed<\/a><\/p>\n Djokovic would be 41 by the time of the Los Angeles Games and, having struggled with multiple physical concerns in recent months, he would need to manage his body carefully to be able to compete.<\/p>\n His ability to do that has now been questioned by Petrova, who reached a career-high of world No 3 in both singles and doubles during a successful career.<\/p>\n Speaking to Championat<\/em><\/a>, Petrova \u2014 a women\u2019s doubles bronze medallist at the London 2012 Games \u2014 claimed it would become \u201charder and harder\u201d for Djokovic to handle the demands of the sport.<\/p>\n She said (translated from Russian): \u201cThe next Olympics are still a long way off.<\/p>\n \u201cBesides, he won gold [at Paris 2024], so I don\u2019t see any point in him racing for the next Olympics.<\/p>\n \u201cHe had some great matches this season, won some titles, but he was still physically inferior to the leaders of men\u2019s tennis, Alcaraz and Sinner. And it\u2019s only going to get harder and harder with each passing year.<\/p>\n \u201cIt would be great if, by some miracle, he finally wins another Grand Slam next year and ends his career on a high note.<\/p>\n \u201cBut then again, Novak is a huge fan of the sport. And only he knows how much longer he can play.\u201d<\/p>\n Djokovic is currently in the middle of his pre-season preparations ahead of his 2026 campaign, which is set to start in a number of weeks.<\/p>\n The 38-year-old is set to begin his year at the Adelaide International<\/a>, an ATP 500 event that he previously won back in 2023.<\/p>\n That will then lead into the Australian Open, where Djokovic will be competing for a record-extending 11th men\u2019s singles title and a 25th Grand Slam title.<\/p>\n Want more from Tennis365? Add us as\u00a0a preferred source on Google to your favourites list<\/a>\u00a0for tennis coverage you can trust.<\/strong><\/p>\n Read Next<\/strong>: Stan Wawrinka Farewell: Stan The Man\u2019s big wins against Big Three of Djokovic, Nadal and Federer<\/a><\/p>\n The post Novak Djokovic\u2019s retirement date ambition question as \u2018inferior\u2019 element addressed<\/a> appeared first on Tennis365<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Former WTA Tour star Nadia Petrova has questioned Novak Djokovic\u2019s ambition of retiring after the 2028 Olympic Games. The long-term future of Djokovic has been a regular point of discussion within tennis in recent months, especially with his \u2018Big 3\u2019 counterparts, Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal, having left the game in the past few years. […]<\/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-1478","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1478","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=1478"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1478\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1478"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1478"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1478"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Tennis News<\/h2>\n