Novak Djokovic will start his season as a World No. 7, and John McEnroe pointed out how his ranking could complicate things.
John McEnroe, Novak Djokovic (Images via X)
Novak Djokovic was slamless in 2024 but has started preparing for the next season where Grand Slam events will be his priorities. John McEnroe thinks Djokovic’s plan to play a few tournaments could pose a problem for him.
In 2024, Djokovic skipped several tournaments and prioritized the Majors and the Paris Olympics (where he won the gold medal). He failed to win any title on the tour and his lack of trophies took him to the seventh position in the rankings.
Djokovic has made it clear that his goal for the 2025 season is to win Majors but how will he win them if he doesn’t have enough match practice? McEnroe said Djokovic’s ranking of No.7 could complicate things as he may end up meeting Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner in the quarterfinals or semifinals.
McEnroe also cast his doubt over Djokovic’s ability to navigate tennis and family time. Djokovic in an interview had opened up about missing his children while on the tour which was ‘hurting’ him ‘more and more’.
You know he’s got two kids, he’s got you know…he’s as you said, towards the end you would assume…so it’s going to be difficult for him to navigate that as we saw last year.
John McEnroe, on the Served with Andy Roddick podcast, talked about the mistakes he made in his career. He compared himself with Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal, and Roger Federer and said he has a lot of respect for them because they continued to work on themselves despite tasting immense success.
Next year at the Brisbane International, Djokovic is also set to play doubles. He will pair up with Nick Kyrgios, who will make his return to tennis for the first time in almost two years.
