WIMBLEDON, England — Novak Djokovic’s hopes of winning an eighth Wimbledon title and a record 25th Grand Slam crown were dashed by the brilliance of world No. 1 Jannik Sinner on Friday, as he was outplayed 6-3, 6-3, 6-4 by Sinner in the semifinals.
Hampered in his movement after a fall in the previous round, 38-year-old Djokovic was a clear second-best against Sinner, who has now won his last five matches against the Serbian.
Djokovic shares the career majors record with Margaret Court and knows he might not have too many more chances to win another one. Has he missed his best chance to win another major? We break it down.
Time is not on his side
Djokovic has been rewriting what’s possible from the human body for many years now, pushing himself to the absolute limit, moving incredibly well and still performing at an exceptionally high level.
But it’s been two years since his last Grand Slam win, when he won the US Open for the fourth time in his career. He turned 38 in May, and the simple fact of the matter is that he is giving up 15 years to Sinner and 16 to Carlos Alcaraz, the two men who are doing the most to prevent him from adding to his tally. Ken Rosewall remains the oldest man to win a slam title, at the Australian Open in 1972 when he was 37 years, 2 months and 1 day old. Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal were both 36, just like Djokovic when he triumphed at the US Open a couple of years ago. Maybe that’s the cutoff.
Sinner and Alcaraz are taking the game to another level
Few people would have thought that, so soon after the retirement of Federer and Nadal, we could be ushering in another golden era in men’s tennis. In Sinner and Alcaraz, though, men’s tennis is being blessed with two men who could dominate the sport for many years to come. Sinner has already won four Slams, and Alcaraz has five to his name, with the two men due to square off in the Wimbledon final.
Their power is unmatched, their movement unrivaled and their momentum is just as high as it was for Federer, Nadal and Djokovic at its peak. Perhaps the biggest problem for Djokovic is that to win another major, he not only has to defy the passing of time but also has to beat at least one and probably both of these two. That’s something that has proved beyond him so far, and unless the draw opens up in some way, somewhere, it’s asking a lot for him to do it.
“I guess playing best-of-five, particularly this year, has been a real struggle for me physically,” Djokovic said Friday. “The longer the tournament goes, yeah, the worse the condition gets. I’ve reached the final stages, I reached the semis of every slam this year, but I have to play Sinner or Alcaraz. These guys are fit, young, sharp. I feel like I’m going into the match with a tank half empty. It’s just not possible to win a match like that.
Injuries are beginning to take their toll
At the Australian Open, a hamstring tear ended his hopes of reaching the final. Djokovic quit after a set against Alexander Zverev, an opponent he would have expected to beat. At the French Open, after losing a tight three-setter to Sinner, he revealed he had been suffering from a muscle injury. Then, at Wimbledon against Sinner again, his movement was clearly hampered, the aftereffects of a tight muscle and a fall on his hip in the previous round.
Trying to get through seven matches, each with as many as five sets, is a hard enough task at the best of times, but at 38, it’s getting more and more difficult to be pain-free, injury-free long enough to have a crack at another title.
“I don’t think it’s bad fortune,” Djokovic said after the match on Friday. “It’s just age, the wear and tear of the body. As much as I’m taking care of it, the reality hits me right now, in the last year-and-a-half, like never before, to be honest.”
Don’t write him off, though
Nothing inspires Djokovic more than being told he can’t do something, so anyone who says definitively that he has won his last major is foolish at best. Time and again, he has come up with incredible feats when the odds are against him, and, like all great champions, he loves it when he’s being written off.
The US Open and Australian Open are good surfaces for his game, of course, and if things go his way in the draw, he’ll believe he has one more in him. Clay would be more difficult, in theory, but grass is always a good opportunity for him if his body plays ball. One thing’s for sure, if he gets another chance, in another final, he will give it everything he has.
