{"id":66975,"date":"2025-05-02T00:01:10","date_gmt":"2025-05-02T00:01:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/66975\/"},"modified":"2025-05-02T00:01:10","modified_gmt":"2025-05-02T00:01:10","slug":"novak-djokovic-said-to-be-facing-a-new-problem-which-could-see-him-retire-from-tennis-at-the-end-of-2025-the-next-six-weeks-are-critical","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/66975\/","title":{"rendered":"Novak Djokovic said to be facing a new problem which could see him retire from tennis at the end of 2025, ‘the next six weeks are critical’"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Novak Djokovic\u2019s clay season went from bad to worse last week as he lost his opening match in Madrid.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Serbian legend enjoyed his best tournament of the season recently, when Djokovic<\/a> reached the final of the Miami Open, coming up short against Jakub Mensik.<\/p>\n

Unable to carry that momentum through to the clay season, Djokovic lost to Alejandro Tabilo<\/a> in his opener at the Monte-Carlo Masters.<\/p>\n

Attempting to bounce back in Madrid, Djokovic then fell to defeat against Matteo Arnaldi<\/a>, as his clay record slumped to 0-2 in 2025.<\/p>\n

\"PhotoPhoto by Alberto Gardin\/Eurasia Sport Images\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Deciding not to play the year\u2019s third clay Masters 1000 event, Djokovic withdrew from the Italian Open<\/a>, and is next scheduled to appear at the French Open.<\/p>\n

One ATP Tour<\/a> legend has now given his thoughts on Djokovic\u2019s recent struggles and suggested the 24-time Major champion could potentially retire from tennis later this year.<\/p>\n

Todd Woodbridge says Novak Djokovic is \u2018losing to people he\u2019s never lost to\u2019 on the ATP Tour<\/p>\n

Speaking on the Australian Open<\/a> YouTube channel, former doubles star Todd Woodbridge explained the new problem Djokovic is facing.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\u201cThe new scenario, which he\u2019s got to think about. He\u2019s now losing to people he\u2019s never lost to, and they\u2019re all starting to go out there, going \u2018Oh, this could be my chance now\u2019,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe invincibility factor has worn down, and he\u2019s got to make that decision, and it seems like he\u2019s made it by pulling out of Rome. I\u2019m going to go on what I\u2019ve done before. I\u2019m going to go on my reputation, my aura, into Roland Garros<\/a> and see if I can pull that off.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut it\u2019s hard because physically, you can see he\u2019s not bouncing back the way he was before.\u201d<\/p>\n

Woodbridge believes the next few months will be \u2018critical\u2019 for the future of Djokovic\u2019s tennis career.<\/p>\n

\"PhotoPhoto by Kelly Defina\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

\u201cThese next five, six weeks, are critical for Novak [Djokovic],\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf he can perform well in Paris, we\u2019ll see him stick around, if he doesn\u2019t, Wimbledon<\/a>, most definitely he\u2019s a contender and he\u2019ll be there, but then I think the rest of the season, his future, we\u2019re going to have to wait and see what he decides to do.<\/p>\n

\u201cUltimately, given the way he has spoken in the media, we may be looking at a time where we see him join Rafa [Nadal]<\/a> and Roger [Federer].\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe game will have moved on past one of the greatest eras of all time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nadal retired from tennis<\/a> upon the conclusion of the 2024 Davis Cup Finals, two years after Federer called it quits at the Laver Cup.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

The Australian went on to highlight how hard Djokovic worked over the years, and explained how that could play a role in his decision to keep playing or retire.<\/p>\n

\u201cNovak\u2019s ability to do the 1% is better than anybody to be honest, certainly he sits in the top 1%, he now knows he\u2019s got to do more,\u201d said Woodbridge.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhere do you find it? Where does he find the extra 1% when he\u2019s already done everything possible?<\/p>\n

\u201cPerhaps he\u2019s looking at that going, I\u2019ve just got no more to give.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf he decides that, well, you deserve to do whatever you want to do. That\u2019s the hard part now.\u201d<\/p>\n

2011 US Open champion Sam Stosur<\/a> then weighed in with her thoughts, questioning whether the end is near for the world number five.<\/p>\n

\"PhotoPhoto by Chris Hyde\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s amazing how quickly things can move past you, even for the greatest of all time, arguably, probably we\u2019re definitely at that crossroads of, all right, is this the time?\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhich you think is unfathomable, that you could ever get to that point.\u201d<\/p>\n

Todd Woodbridge says Novak Djokovic\u2019s defeat to Jakub Mensik in Miami highlighted a big issue<\/p>\n

Woodbridge also noticed something in Djokovic\u2019s defeat to Mensik<\/a> earlier this year, which worried him.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I watch him at the moment, he\u2019s still winning matches, but if you go back a few years, he was never bullied within a rally around the court, you\u2019d see him in the corners, and you know he could be flat out and he\u2019d still be\u00a0making balls and [move] back into neutral,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you go back and you have a look at the opening set against [Jakub] Mensik<\/a> in Miami, he couldn\u2019t do that, he was being blasted through the corners.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\u201cA little bit like what we saw [Carlos] Alcaraz<\/a> do in Alcaraz\u2019s first Wimbledon final, he just blew him away.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe isn\u2019t able to absorb as much of the firepower as he was.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow that could be two reasons, one maybe he\u2019s just half a step slower. I\u2019m not sure
that that is the case.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the game of this current crop coming [through] is even bigger than anything that he had to face.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"PhotoPhoto by THOMAS COEX\/AFP via Getty Images<\/p>\n

Only time will tell if Djokovic can bounce back and return to winning ways when he takes to the court in Paris.<\/p>\n

The 2025 French Open is scheduled to begin on Sunday, May 25.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Novak Djokovic\u2019s clay season went from bad to worse last week as he lost his opening match in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":66976,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4105],"tags":[4294,4295,79,1068,33963,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-66975","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennis","8":"tag-atp","9":"tag-novak-djokovic","10":"tag-sports","11":"tag-tennis","12":"tag-todd-woodbridge","13":"tag-uk","14":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114435305274250881","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66975","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=66975"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66975\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/66976"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=66975"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=66975"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=66975"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}