Novak Djokovic is preparing to return to action after a disastrous start to his clay court season and the latest footage of his practice session has set a few alarm bells ringing.<\/p>\n
Djokovic\u2019s<\/a> defeat against Alejandro Tabilo in Monte Carlo and his loss against Matteo Arnaldi in his first match at the Madrid Open suggested the 24-time Grand Slam champion was a long way from the form he needs to be in to challenge for the title at the French Open.<\/p>\n The Serbian legend pulled out of this week\u2019s Italian Open as he opted to take a break from tennis, but he has entered the lower ranking ATP 250 tournament in Geneva next week as he looks to fine tune his game ahead of the second Grand Slam of the season in Paris.<\/p>\n Now footage has emerged of Djokovic\u2019s practice ahead of his next tournament, as he again appeared to be struggling to find his feet on clay courts.<\/p>\n Djokovic has looked off-balance in his defeats against Tabilo and Arnaldi and he also looked unsteady in his latest practice session.<\/p>\n Today in Belgrade, Novak Djokovic practising on thin clay. (As Rome set the new standard, a HC-like clay to benefit doping prince, I bet RG will follow it). \u2014 Novak Analysis (@NovakAnalysis) May 11, 2025<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Djokovic will be hoping to get some matches under his belt ahead of the French Open, as he didn\u2019t try to hide his disdain for his level of performance after the defeat against Arnaldi in Madrid.<\/p>\n \u201cKind of new reality for me, I have to say,\u201d said Djokovic after the defeat against Arnaldi.<\/p>\n \u201cYou 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, 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 Former world No 1 Andy Roddick suggested critics of Djokovic should be wary of writing off the player who will toast his 38th birthday later this month.<\/p>\n The 7 ATP players with the best win percentage on clay: Rafael Nadal No 1, Novak Djokovic on 80.1%<\/a><\/p>\n Chris Evert gives her verdict Novak Djokovic\u2019s Grand Slam prospects<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cHis year is littered with first-round losses. It\u2019s like I can\u2019t just show up at tournaments and be in the semis. It\u2019s not something that is the norm for me anymore, but he doesn\u2019t have to,\u201d said Roddick on his Served podcast.<\/p>\n \u201cFor me, it\u2019s just a matter of can he get off the mark? What is his start? If it\u2019s a 100m dash, I don\u2019t know if he can kick and make up ground once he\u2019s behind now.<\/p>\n \u201cBut if he gets a couple of matches in, he is in the semis of Australia and might have been considered co-favourite.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have very short memories. All we remember right now is [Matteo] Arnaldi. But he beat [Carlos] Alcaraz, and he was playing [Alexander] Zverev, and people are saying if he\u2019s healthy, he is the favourite.<\/p>\n \u201cHe can reset that expectation so quickly. If he looks great in his first two rounds at Roland Garros, we are throwing him right back up to the top of the favourites list. He can reset quicker than anyone.\u201d<\/p>\n READ NEXT: Novak Djokovic\u2019s doubters given a firm reminder by world No 1 ahead of French Open<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n The post Novak Djokovic practice footage emerges and it has served up some big questions<\/a> appeared first on Tennis365<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Novak Djokovic is preparing to return to action after a disastrous start to his clay court season and the latest footage of his practice session has set a few alarm bells ringing. Djokovic\u2019s defeat against Alejandro Tabilo in Monte Carlo and his loss against Matteo Arnaldi in his first match at the Madrid Open suggested […]<\/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-443","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/443","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=443"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/443\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=443"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=443"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=443"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
\nLooks like he still hasn\u2019t found his rhythm on movements and sometimes off balance pic.twitter.com\/4cXxOM3WH6<\/a><\/p>\nMore Tennis News<\/h3>\n