Novak Djokovic‘s former coach, Goran Ivanisevic, presented what he thinks might be causing the Serbian’s recent slump.
After making history again last year, the 24-time major winner struggled to replicate the same level so far this year. He’s played a few events and made the semi-final at two of them but went empty-handed in all of them.
It’s not something that happens often, although it did happen in 2022 when the Italian Open was his first trophy of the year. He still won five trophies that year, including Wimbledon and the ATP Finals.
That means that despite having a slow start, it doesn’t mean it will be a terrible year for Djokovic. After all, he’s still number one. For Ivanisevic, it’s certainly not something worth sounding the alarms over. In an interview with Sportal, he even shared a theory of why the results might be lacking this year.
“Training is one thing, and matches are another. You have to train. I see that many criticize him for not having motivation, but the man has broken all the records, he has won everything he could win and it is not easy to motivate himself again and again. If you don’t train you can’t expect great things.”
It’s an interesting idea and certainly makes sense logically. If he’s not pushing as hard in practices, then he might get caught off guard during matches.
As his former coach, Ivanisevic might have seen this firsthand, which makes this theory pretty credible. With the rise of Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz, Djokovic needs his best to beat them.
“He is a genius and he easily adapts to matches, and if you tie his hands and feet, there are players he will win against, but against these two, I mean Sinner and Alcaraz, it is a little more difficult. Jannik and Carlos are currently five steps ahead of everyone else, I’m not just talking about Novak.”
