{"id":94974,"date":"2025-05-12T09:24:08","date_gmt":"2025-05-12T09:24:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/94974\/"},"modified":"2025-05-12T09:24:08","modified_gmt":"2025-05-12T09:24:08","slug":"novak-djokovic-mentality-questioned-as-close-friend-offers-frank-verdict-on-career-tennis-sport","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/94974\/","title":{"rendered":"Novak Djokovic mentality questioned as close friend offers frank verdict on career | Tennis | Sport"},"content":{"rendered":"

Alexander Zverev<\/a> has admitted that he is not sure if Novak Djokovic<\/a> is prepared to work hard enough to return to his brilliant best. The veteran Serb has failed to win a single tournament since prevailing at the Olympics<\/a> last year. He came agonisingly close at the Miami Open two months ago but suffered a shock defeat to Jakub Mensik in the final.<\/p>\n

Since then, Djokovic has slipped to early exits in each of his last two tournaments. At the Monte-Carlo Masters, he was beaten in straight sets by Alejandro Tabilo before losing in a similar fashion to Matteo Arnaldi at the Madrid Open. His poor recent form has cast doubt over whether he will ever be able to restore former glories.<\/p>\n

Zverev, who is one of Djokovic’s closest friends on tour, was quizzed on the 37-year-old’s current plight after his victory over Vilius Gaubas at the Italian Open. Djokovic is not playing in Rome, having withdrawn from the tournament before the first round.<\/p>\n

“It’s only here that he pulled out, right? He played all the other tournaments,” said Zverev. “Maybe he didn’t play up to his standard or his liking, but who does sometimes.<\/p>\n

“If you’re not winning the tournament, if you’re a top guy and you’re not winning the tournament, you always go home a little bit p***** and a little bit upset. I still believe once he finds his game, he’s still one of the most dangerous players in the world.<\/p>\n

“There’s no question about his ability at all. It’s more whether he still wants to. It’s more whether he still wants to put in the work. That’s a question to him. I can’t answer that.”<\/p>\n

Zverev is not the only tennis figure to have questioned Djokovic’s work ethic over the last few months. Patrick Mouratoglou, who coached Serena Williams for over a decade, recently issued a stinging review of his abject displays<\/a> in Monte-Carlo and Madrid.<\/p>\n

“It’s like that for a guy like him, if he doesn’t have the motivation, then he shouldn’t even be playing, because it seemed like he wasn’t even trying to win,” said Mouratoglou.<\/p>\n

“I’m not saying he’s not capable of playing better, he certainly is, but I feel like he’s physically not ready. Tennis-wise, physically, for such tournaments, especially because there is no motive.<\/p>\n

“The question arises, why did he play them then? I don’t understand that. Motivation is a big thing for him. Everything revolves around that and I’ve been saying that for a while.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Alexander Zverev has admitted that he is not sure if Novak Djokovic is prepared to work hard enough…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":94975,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4105],"tags":[4721,25564,39615,44567,38962,4295,79,1068,31636,44566,5838,31638,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-94974","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennis","8":"tag-alexander-zverev","9":"tag-italian-open","10":"tag-italian-open-highlights","11":"tag-italian-open-results","12":"tag-italian-open-schedule","13":"tag-novak-djokovic","14":"tag-sports","15":"tag-tennis","16":"tag-tennis-latest","17":"tag-tennis-motivation","18":"tag-tennis-news","19":"tag-tennis-scores","20":"tag-uk","21":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114494142144132912","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94974","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=94974"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94974\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/94975"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=94974"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=94974"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=94974"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}