{"id":2772,"date":"2026-09-11T17:15:27","date_gmt":"2026-09-11T17:15:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/?p=2772"},"modified":"2026-09-11T17:15:27","modified_gmt":"2026-09-11T17:15:27","slug":"john-mcenroe-predicts-when-novak-djokovic-will-call-time-on-his-tennis-career","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/?p=2772","title":{"rendered":"John McEnroe predicts when Novak Djokovic will call time on his tennis career"},"content":{"rendered":"

Novak Djokovic<\/a>\u2019s future was thrown into question when he crashed out of the US Open in the first round and now tennis legend John McEnroe has joined he debate over what happens next for the Serbian legend.<\/p>\n

Djokovic was suffering from ill health during his defeats at the Cincinnati Open against Argentina\u2019s Thiago Agustin Tirante before he lost against a second Argentine when he was beaten in five set by\u00a0Mariano Navone in the first round of the US Open.<\/p>\n

The 24-time Grand Slam-winning great was in tears during the final set of his match at Flushing Meadows, sparking suggestions that he may be closing in on the end of his career.<\/p>\n

Former US Open champion Andy Roddick and 1997 finalist Greg Rusedski are among those who have hit out at those urging Djokovic to retire.<\/p>\n

And while tennis great McEnroe didn\u2019t urge the Serbian to quit, it is clear that he fears we may soon be waving farewell to the most successful male tennis player of all-time.<\/p>\n

More Tennis News<\/h2>\n

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\u201cOn the one hand, you figure okay, it\u2019s obviously catching up to him as it does with every athlete at some point,\u201d declared McEnroe, as he spoke at a Eurosport and HBO Event ahead of their coverage of the US Open finals.<\/p>\n

\u201cThen on the other hand, he\u2019s had an incredible run. He beat (Jannik) Sinner in Australia (in January), got to the finals, won the first set against Carlos Alcaraz and played well.<\/p>\n

\u201cThen he got to the semis at Wimbledon, had a great win over Felix Auger-Aliassime in the round before.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat said to me that coming into the US Open, he was probably the third or fourth best player in the world. So what we saw in the first round was shocking.<\/p>\n

\u201cFather Time, as they say, is undefeated. It\u2019s just one of those things.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know what\u2019s going on with him, you know, the heat and humidity. That was something that was that that can be an issue for anyone. This heat and humidity. It wasn\u2019t unbelievably hot.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo I don\u2019t know what\u2019s gonna happen next. I\u2019m sure that you know he\u2019s thinking hard about what\u2019s next, but at the same time, I don\u2019t think he\u2019d want to go out that way, the way you know what happened. So<\/p>\n

\u201cI just don\u2019t know what he\u2019s gonna do, honestly. Whatever makes him happy is what he should do.\u201d<\/p>\n

Want more from Tennis365? Add us as a preferred source on Google to your favourites list<\/a> for tennis coverage you can trust.<\/strong><\/p>\n

When asked whether he expected 2027 to be Djokovic\u2019s final year in tennis, McEnroe added: \u201cWell, you would certainly think so. He\u2019s 39 for starters, you know, when it\u2019s just way past most people\u2019s expiration date and tennis, including mine.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou don\u2019t want to get to a point and say, \u2018why did I stop when maybe I could have won more. That\u2019s sort of what Novak\u2019s facing. You got to the finals of Australia. He\u2019s like, maybe I could win one more.<\/p>\n

\u201cWill he stop next year? It seems like it\u2019s gonna be soon. You would think that\u2019s a strong possibility, but we\u2019ll have to wait and see.\u201d<\/p>\n

READ NEXT: John McEnroe reveals who he would like to see Carlos Alcaraz play in his ultimate match<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

The post John McEnroe predicts when Novak Djokovic will call time on his tennis career<\/a> appeared first on Tennis365<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Novak Djokovic\u2019s future was thrown into question when he crashed out of the US Open in the first round and now tennis legend John McEnroe has joined he debate over what happens next for the Serbian legend. Djokovic was suffering from ill health during his defeats at the Cincinnati Open against Argentina\u2019s Thiago Agustin Tirante […]<\/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-2772","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2772","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=2772"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2772\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2772"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2772"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2772"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}