World No 15 Karen Khachanov has given his verdict on Novak Djokovic\u2019s chances of winning a 25th Grand Slam title.<\/p>\n
Djokovic<\/a> is poised to compete at the 2026 Italian Open, a clay-court Masters 1000 tournament held at the Foro Italico, which he has won six times.<\/p>\n The 38-year-old is seeded third in Rome, and he will begin his campaign against either Marton Fucsovics or Dino Prizmic. He is projected to meet 13th seed Khachanov in the fourth round.<\/p>\n The tennis legend has not played since he lost to Jack Draper in the last 16 in Indian Wells in March.<\/p>\n In an interview with Championat<\/em><\/a>, Khachanov spoke about Djokovic\u2019s limited playing schedule ahead of the Serb\u2019s return to action.<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s already a legend. That is, basically, it seems to me, he\u2019s already proven everything he could,\u201d said the 29-year-old Russian.<\/p>\n \u201cHe wants to play, but it\u2019s probably getting a little harder, too. I think he gets more tired and has a harder time recovering, which is why he sometimes takes longer breaks.<\/p>\n Jannik Sinner\u2019s French Open favourite status compared to Rafael Nadal in bold statement<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n Coco Gauff, Iga Swiatek & Emma Raducanu react to Aryna Sabalenka\u2019s Grand Slam boycott comments<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n Want more from Tennis365? Add us as\u00a0<\/span>a preferred source on Google to your favourites list<\/a>\u00a0<\/span>for tennis coverage you can trust.<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cTo be honest, I haven\u2019t specifically tracked it, but he changes his schedule a little every year.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t know, now he\u2019s playing here straight on clay, but before that he hadn\u2019t played in Madrid. And before that he hadn\u2019t played in Rome, but then he played in Geneva.<\/p>\n \u201cIn short, I don\u2019t know. To be honest, it seems to me that it is based more on feelings, motivation and, probably, the physical component.<\/p>\n \u201cSo, in any case, of course, he\u2019s on tour. He played in the Australian Open final. So he\u2019s got the skill. It doesn\u2019t even matter if it\u2019s skill.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t think he\u2019s there yet, I don\u2019t know\u2026 Even if he\u2019s 30th or 50th, I still think he should never be underestimated. Especially now, when he was playing in the final of his last Grand Slam.<\/p>\n \u201cSo it\u2019s great that he\u2019s not even exactly back, but just continuing to play. And here, this week, he\u2019s in the tournament, preparing for Roland Garros.\u201d<\/p>\n Djokovic, who won his record-extending 24th Grand Slam title at the 2023 US Open, was a runner-up to Carlos Alcaraz at the 2026 Australian Open.<\/p>\n Asked if Djokovic winning a 25th major is a \u201cfantasy\u201d, Khachanov said: \u201cThere\u2019s no point in discussing that. But why is it a fantasy?<\/p>\n \u201cLook, he played the final in Australia. Or, let\u2019s say, last year he played in all four Grand Slam semi-finals and lost only to Sinner and Alcaraz. So, for him, it turns out, these two are his main rivals now.<\/p>\n \u201cEssentially, if you look at the statistics, then, of course, anything is possible.<\/p>\n \u201cEveryone is counting on him, and I still think that younger guys, not necessarily obliged, but should beat him. But he tells them otherwise.\u201d<\/p>\n READ NEXT: ATP Rankings Race To Turin: Sinner opens up big lead, Djokovic drops to 7th, Fils soars to No 4, Cobolli climbs<\/a> The post Is Novak Djokovic winning a 25th Grand Slam a \u2018fantasy\u2019? ATP rival sends strong message<\/a> appeared first on Tennis365<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" World No 15 Karen Khachanov has given his verdict on Novak Djokovic\u2019s chances of winning a 25th Grand Slam title. Djokovic is poised to compete at the 2026 Italian Open, a clay-court Masters 1000 tournament held at the Foro Italico, which he has won six times. The 38-year-old is seeded third in Rome, and he […]<\/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-2140","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2140","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=2140"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2140\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2140"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2140"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2140"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Tennis News<\/h2>\n
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