{"id":245989,"date":"2025-07-07T19:05:11","date_gmt":"2025-07-07T19:05:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/245989\/"},"modified":"2025-07-07T19:05:11","modified_gmt":"2025-07-07T19:05:11","slug":"john-mcenroe-predicts-novak-djokovic-will-retire-on-the-spot-at-wimbledon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/245989\/","title":{"rendered":"John McEnroe predicts Novak Djokovic will RETIRE on the spot at Wimbledon"},"content":{"rendered":"

John McEnroe raised viewers’ eyebrows when he sensationally predicted that Novak Djokovic could retire on the spot after his woeful start to the fourth-round tie against Alex de Minaur.<\/p>\n

The Serb endured a torrid time during his first set, losing the opener 6-1 to the Australian after just half an hour.<\/p>\n

The set saw the seven-time Wimbledon champion produce four double faults, to de Minaur\u2019s none, and a whopping 16 unforced errors, more than triple that of his counterpart.<\/p>\n

After the set swiftly concluded, McEnroe had stern words for the 38-year-old, believing he would be \u201cdisgusted\u201d with himself.<\/p>\n

\"Novak<\/p>\n

Novak Djokovic endured a torrid start to his fourth round match<\/p>\n

Getty<\/p>\n

Speaking on the BBC, McEnroe boldly claimed: \u201cI can\u2019t remember when I\u2019ve seen him play a worse set than this, it has literally been years.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s absolutely disgusted with himself.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHe [de Minaur] didn\u2019t have to do anything he didn\u2019t want to; he served at 40 per cent. He made more errors than winners. <\/p>\n

JUST IN: <\/strong>Eddie Hearn issues plea to Tyson Fury and reveals Anthony Joshua is ready to \u2018give up\u2019 on fight<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\\u200bAlex<\/p>\n

Alex de Minaur took a shock 6-1 lead to take the first set<\/p>\n

Getty<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think that this is going to happen, that he continues to play this badly, but if he did for two more sets, he would quit on the spot!<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is incredible to see him playing like this, but this is why they\u2019re best of five [sets].\u201d<\/p>\n

McEnroe also pointed to the crowd being \u201cstunned\u201d at what they had seen so far, and that the Serb was looking \u201chuman\u201d, which is unlike him.<\/p>\n

READ MORE: <\/strong>Lewis Hamilton ends remarkable Silverstone run blasting ‘hard to drive’ car<\/a><\/p>\n

Djokovic did respond to his first set horror by breaking de Minaur immediately, however was broken back straight away by the Australian after a breathtaking nine deuces.<\/p>\n

This did, of course, little to overshadow the Serb\u2019s slow start in which he won just one game in the opening set.<\/p>\n

Fans had suggested that, while Djokovic\u2019s start was uncharacteristically poor, his body language and effort were also lacking, providing even more of a shock.<\/p>\n

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\"Novak<\/p>\n

Novak Djokovic now has a mountain to climb against Alex de Minaur<\/p>\n

Getty<\/p>\n

However, supporters also noted that the Serb may have given up for the opening set, being already four games behind the Australian.<\/p>\n

Djokovic is searching for his record-breaking 25th Grand Slam and looking to equal Roger Federer\u2019s eight Wimbledon titles.<\/p>\n

Additionally, the world No6 is looking to become the oldest player to win a Grand Slam title, with Ken Rosewall currently topping the list at 37.<\/p>\n

Up until Monday afternoon\u2019s game, Djokovic has oozed class at the All England Club, breezing past Miomir Kecmanovic, Dan Evans and Alexandre Muller.<\/p>\n

26-year-old de Minaur is proving a much sterner test for the 24-time Grand Slam winner, who will need to seriously up his game for the remainder of the match if he is to progress.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"John McEnroe raised viewers’ eyebrows when he sensationally predicted that Novak Djokovic could retire on the spot after…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":245990,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4105],"tags":[93,79,1068,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-245989","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennis","8":"tag-sport","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-tennis","11":"tag-uk","12":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114813516168595132","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245989","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=245989"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245989\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/245990"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=245989"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=245989"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=245989"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}