\u2018There was certainly something wrong with Novak Djokovic at the Monte Carlo Masters\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n Clement\u2019s comments were speculative, but a few things don\u2019t add up when we assess Djokovic\u2019s decision making in 2025.<\/p>\n He was criticised last year for playing a part-time schedule on the ATP Tour, with many experienced observers suggesting Djokovic would struggle to add to his haul of Grand Slam titles if he only played a handful of tournaments a year.<\/p>\n His response to that criticism was pretty clear, as he insisted spending time with his wife and two children was more important to him than playing in ATP Tour events he no longer had the motivation to compete in.<\/p>\n Time away from his home appeared to be a non-negotiable condition for Djokovic to continue his career a year ago, but he has played in far more tournaments this year and spent long periods away from his wife Jelena and their two children.<\/p>\n Novak Djokovic\u2019s family: Daughter Tara, wife Jelena and son Stefan<\/p>\n<\/div>\n His appearance at the Qatar Open in February was a surprise a few weeks after he pulled out of the Australian Open with an injury problem and then he spent almost a month in America, playing at the Indian Wells Masters and then appearing at the Miami Open for the first time since 2019.<\/p>\n Taking time off after that long run away from home may have been understandable, but Djokovic appears to be ready to devote more of his time to playing tennis in 2025 and he confirmed as much by getting straight back on court in Monte Carlo.<\/p>\n With a lack of preparation time on clay his defeat was not a surprise, but he conceded the level of his performance was worrying.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was actually more like the worst day. Look, I was hoping this is not going to happen, but it was quite a high probability I\u2019m going to play this way,\u201d said a downbeat Djokovic.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t know, just horrible. Horrible feeling to play this way and I\u2019m just sorry for all the people that have to witness this.<\/p>\n \u201cI expected myself at least to have put in a decent performance. Not like this, I mean this is horrible.<\/p>\n \u201cI did not have high expectations, really. I knew I\u2019m gonna have a tough opponent, and I knew I\u2019m gonna probably play pretty bad. But this bad\u2026 I didn\u2019t expect.\u201d<\/p>\n Presumably, Djokovic will now have a chance to cram in some valuable time with his children before he returns to court and the next big test of his new approach will be revealed later this month in Madrid.<\/p>\n This has often been the clay court Masters 1000 tournament Djokovic has skipped in recent years and he has only played in Madrid once since 2019.<\/p>\n If he does show up for a tournament played at altitude in conditions he admits do not always suit him, it will be clear that he is putting his tennis first as he chases a record-breaking 25th Grand Slam title before he calls time on his career.<\/p>\n READ NEXT: The 9 players with the most bagels in the past 52 weeks: Alex de Minaur surges clear<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n The post Does Novak Djokovic \u2018have a problem\u2019 after a radical shift in his approach?<\/a> appeared first on Tennis365<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" After Novak Djokovic\u2019s unexpected decision to play at the Monte Carlo Masters was backed up by a poor performance and a defeat in his opening match, the idea that he may \u2018have a problem\u2019 was floated. Former top ten star Arnaud Clement voiced his concerns after Djokovic\u2019s flat performance as he lost against Chile\u2019s world […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":296,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-295","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/295","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=295"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/295\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/296"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=295"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=295"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=295"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Novak](\"https:\/\/d2me2qg8dfiw8u.cloudfront.net\/content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/18075227\/Novak-Djokovics-family.jpg\")
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