{"id":585267,"date":"2026-07-14T13:56:17","date_gmt":"2026-07-14T13:56:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/585267\/"},"modified":"2026-07-14T13:56:17","modified_gmt":"2026-07-14T13:56:17","slug":"novak-djokovic-is-at-peace-with-ageing-cristiano-ronaldo-remains-between-anger-and-denial-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/585267\/","title":{"rendered":"Novak Djokovic is at peace with ageing; Cristiano Ronaldo remains between anger and denial \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

When Novak Djokovic<\/a> arrived in his Wimbledon postmatch press conference last Friday with a laugh and calling his straight sets semi-final defeat to Jannik Sinner<\/a> a \u201cgood old blowout\u201d, it was a sign he was ready to be frank about where his game sat among the elite.<\/p>\n

Sinner, the world number one player and 15 years younger than Djokovic, had won 88 per cent of points behind his first serve, and served 16 aces with fantastic variety and relentless consistency. Djokovic had no answer in a 6-4, 6-4, 6-4 loss against the eventual champion.<\/p>\n

\u201cCould you talk a bit more about how you tried to deal with his serve, everyone says you are the best returner there\u2019s ever been,\u201d a reporter asked Djokovic.<\/p>\n

He interjected with Hemingway-esque clarity about his game at 39 years old: \u201cWas. Was. That\u2019s the reality. Was.\u201d<\/p>\n

With 24 Grand Slams, the Serbian has two more than the next male player on the all-time list, Rafael Nadal, but a 25th title would give him the most of any player, man or woman. Just three years ago, Djokovic won three of the four Grand Slams and looked set for 25. Then the much younger Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz hit another level, and he has not won one since.<\/p>\n

\u201cI anticipate the ball and know where it is going. Mentally, I am there, but my body feels slowed down,\u201d Djokovic said. \u201cThen you feel as though you are constantly half a step slower than the player on the other side of the net. That drives me mad.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne day I play extraordinarily well in both training and matches, and the next day, I feel like I am not within my own body. It\u2019s as if I am a completely different person.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is challenging for me to accept, after all I have achieved and all the experience I have, that my level has dropped so much.\u201d<\/p>\n

\" Cristiano Ronaldo paying tribute to the late Diogo Jota after Portugal’s victory over Croatia at the World Cup. Photograph: Buda Mendes\/Getty Images <\/p>\n

The common refrain from pundits across various sports is \u201cthe legs have gone\u201d. To use another Hemingway quote: \u201cHow did you go bankrupt? Gradually, then suddenly.\u201d The madness that Djokovic spoke about is what drives many of the greats to retirement.<\/p>\n

Another sportsperson who should know about decline is Cristiano Ronaldo<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Ronaldo\u2019s levels in his early to mid-30s were exceptional \u2013 he scored decisive goals in the Champions League for fun \u2013 but \u201chalf a step slower\u201d would be a generous appraisal of the 41-year-old Ronaldo these days. His lack of mobility contributed to Portugal\u2019s underwhelming World Cup<\/a> performance. No forward among the last 16 teams at the World Cup ran less than Ronaldo.<\/p>\n

If Djokovic has reached the acceptance part of the five stages of grief over his former ability, Ronaldo appears to be still somewhere between denial and anger.<\/p>\n

While Djokovic on social media was posting about being lost for words after an \u201cepic\u201d week at Wimbledon and praising Sinner, Ronaldo\u2019s only post in the aftermath of his defeat consisted of two pictures of him from 10 years ago holding the European Championship trophy with the caption: \u201cA victory of millions!\u201d<\/p>\n

That followed Ronaldo\u2019s interview after the 1-0 defeat against Spain in which there was some reminiscing over the past but no admission of slowing down.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe greatest title I won with the national team was Euro 2016; for me, it has the same value as a World Cup.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m sad to leave the World Cup this way. I gave it my all, and I leave with a clear conscience. I\u2019ve won three titles with Portugal. Before Cristiano, Portugal had no titles.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"CristianoCristiano Ronaldo leaves the pitch after Portugal’s defeat by Spain in the last 16 of the World Cup. Photograph: Ryan Pierse\/ Fifa\/Fifa via Getty Images <\/p>\n

Ronaldo counts two Uefa Nations League titles \u2013 one wonders how much Eus\u00e9bio and Luis Figo would have relished playing in five to six Nations League campaigns in their careers.<\/p>\n

He said he left the World Cup with a clear conscience, but a penny for the thoughts of departing manager Roberto Martinez, who created such an insipid team, despite having talents such as Vitinha, Bruno Fernandes and Joao Neves, by playing to the whims of Ronaldo. As Portuguese journalist Diogo Cardoso Oliveira from Publico succinctly put it: \u201cRonaldo thinks he\u2019ll live forever, and Martinez wasn\u2019t afraid to die for his subservience.\u201d<\/p>\n

When Rio Ferdinand retired from England at 34, he said it was to \u201clet the younger players come through\u201d. Such a concept has never entered Ronaldo\u2019s head. The 25-year-old striker Gon\u00e7alo Ramos, next in line, scored a hat-trick in the last World Cup and scored the winner against Croatia in the last 32 to put them in the next round. Martinez didn\u2019t give him a minute against Spain.<\/p>\n

At least for Djokovic, he is the last man standing and his greatest rivals, Roger Federer and Nadal, have retired. Ronaldo\u2019s foe Lionel Messi, meanwhile, is having a long-lasting Indian summer, with eight goals in this World Cup so far, four years after leading Argentina to triumph in 2022. <\/p>\n

Earlier in the current tournament, Ronaldo bristled at a question about Messi, refusing to talk about him.<\/p>\n

Djokovic has not always been the number one pillar of humility and gratitude in sport, but his self-reflection is at least a sign of maturity from a sportsperson coming to peace with the end, even if it doesn\u2019t make it less frustrating.<\/p>\n

\"NovakNovak Djokovic says having a glorious past can be both a blessing and a curse. Photograph: Rob Newell\/Camera Sport\/Getty Images <\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m blessed and cursed to be used to something of the highest degree in terms of results and achievements,\u201d Djokovic said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s kind of that internal battle of what I\u2019ve been through for 20-plus years of my career, what the goals were, the expectations and trying to also balance it out and trying to be a bit more humble in that sense.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t have any pressure or no one is forcing me to play. I do it because I really want to and because I still can play as a top-five player.\u201d<\/p>\n

Djokovic assessed it right, he is a capable top-five player, as he showed by beating the third seed Felix Auger Aliassime in five sets in the quarter-finals of Wimbledon. Ronaldo is nowhere near that, despite the 1,000 goals narrative, which he no doubt will claim leads him to Goat status in the tiresome debate with Messi.<\/p>\n

Andre Agassi, channelling Hemingway himself on the BBC, poignantly said: \u201cAs in life, hope is fragile but hard to kill.\u201d That hope will get Djokovic trying for one last Wimbledon, he says; Ronaldo may have even more hope on the horizon.<\/p>\n

Jorge Jesus, his former club boss from Al-Nassr in Saudi Arabia, has been appointed as the new Portugal manager. Jesus has not ruled out picking Ronaldo in the future, and insisted the forward will \u201cnever be a problem\u201d.<\/p>\n

Ronaldo at Euro 2028? Don\u2019t rule it out, no matter how many steps off his peak he is.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When Novak Djokovic arrived in his Wimbledon postmatch press conference last Friday with a laugh and calling his…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":585268,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[76],"tags":[27425,18,19,17,78594,6642,132,14181,35350],"class_list":["post-585267","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-cristiano-ronaldo","tag-eire","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-novak-djokovic","tag-portugal","tag-sports","tag-wimbledon","tag-world-cup"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116918681008486947","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/585267","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=585267"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/585267\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/585268"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=585267"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=585267"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=585267"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}