There may only be two more chances left for Novak Djokovic to tick off his last two big targets in tennis.<\/p>\n
As he crashed out of the Madrid Open after a sadly predictable defeat against Matteo Arnaldi, the end of the story that is being curated by the most successful male tennis player of all time felt closer than ever.<\/p>\n
It has been clear for some time that Djokovic<\/a> has little or no motivation to play in regular ATP Tour events, but the option of just playing in the Grand Slam events that still motivate him and not entering any other tournaments is not plausible.<\/p>\n If he played just four Grand Slam events a year, Djokovic would quickly become an unseeded player and his hopes of slipping into match-winning mode without any serious match practice after he toasts his 38th birthday next month seem fanciful, even for the greatest of them all.<\/p>\n Djokovic\u2019s slow decline has been in evidence for some time, but he has managed to serve up the odd performance that suggested he was still competitive at the highest level.<\/p>\n Novak Djokovic faces rankings slide as two players could overtake him this week<\/a><\/p>\n Novak Djokovic, Emma Raducanu and Andrey Rublev face rankings implications after Madrid Open defeats<\/a><\/p>\n His win at the 2024 Paris Olympics was an example of his enduring brilliance and his win against Carlos Alcaraz at the Australian Open in January was another example of his flicking abilities to shine against the game\u2019s best.<\/p>\n Yet as Arnaldi added his name to the growing list of unheralded performers who have beaten Djokovic over the last year, even the player who still believes he can win a record-breaking 25th Grand Slam title appeared to be losing faith in the process.<\/p>\n \u201cAfter you lose a match, you don\u2019t feel good, but I\u2019ve had a few of these this year where I lose in the first round, unfortunately,\u201d said Djokovic.<\/p>\n \u201cKind of new reality for me, I have to say. You know, trying to win a match or two, not really thinking about getting far in the tournament. It\u2019s a completely different feeling from what I had in 20-plus years of professional tennis, so it\u2019s kind of a challenge for me mentally to really face this kind of sensation on the court, going out early now regularly in the tournaments.<\/p>\n \u201cI guess, the circle of life and the career (smiling), eventually it was going to happen. Now I\u2019m trying to, you know, use this as a driving force for the future. Obviously, Grand Slams, I was saying many times, are the most important tournaments for me.<\/p>\n \u201cWhich doesn\u2019t mean that I don\u2019t want to win here, of course I wanted to, but Grand Slams are where I really want to play the best tennis. I\u2019m not sure if I\u2019ll be able to do that in Roland Garros, but I\u2019ll do my best.\u201d<\/p>\n Djokovic\u2019s run to last year\u2019s Wimbledon final and this year\u2019s Australian Open semi-finals will have fuelled his belief that he could still challenge for the title he needs to move past Margaret Court and claim the record for the most Grand Slam wins.<\/p>\n That mindset may already have shifted for Djokovic after the Arnaldi defeat and if he goes out early at Roland Garros and then slips to a defeat at Wimbledon without challenging on grass courts he adores, Djokovic may well conclude the game is up.<\/p>\n He will not want to become a punchbag for younger players he would have beaten with ease in his prime, as while his former rival and now coach Andy Murray seemed happy to battle on against the odds in his final years in tennis after hip surgery, Djokovic does not have the personality to accept a backseat role in the game.<\/p>\n So don\u2019t be surprised if next month\u2019s French Open and Wimbledon represent his final two attempts to get over the winning line to claim a final Grand Slam title and his 100th career title, because what we have seen from Djokovic in regular ATP Tour events over the last year cannot continue for too much longer.<\/p>\n READ NEXT: Novak Djokovic told why it is \u2018getting harder and harder every week\u2019 despite being the GOAT<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n The post Novak Djokovic\u2019s retirement announcement would no longer be a shock<\/a> appeared first on Tennis365<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" There may only be two more chances left for Novak Djokovic to tick off his last two big targets in tennis. As he crashed out of the Madrid Open after a sadly predictable defeat against Matteo Arnaldi, the end of the story that is being curated by the most successful male tennis player of all […]<\/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-372","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/372","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=372"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/372\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=372"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=372"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=372"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}More Tennis News<\/h3>\n