Wilander: ‘Special Human Being’ Djokovic May Face Confidence Dip After Ranking Slip
Former World No. 1 Mats Wilander was recently asked about his thoughts on Novak Djokovic and what his career might look like in the future, and he broke it down while praising the Serbian for all his efforts.
Probably the most iconic tennis performance of the 2024 season was Djokovic beating Carlos Alcaraz at the Paris Olympics. It was the performance that proved that a highly motivated and close to his best Djokovic can do tremendous damage even against some of the best.
Doing that at his age is not easy and takes tremendous work and dedication. Djokovic has never been known as a player unwilling to do the grind, but it takes a special kind of person to still keep that up this much into his career.
He’s been competing for almost two decades, and that takes resilience. Mats Wilander recently praised his resilience and drive as he highlighted his commitment to his singles career but also the Davis Cup.
Djokovic has always been quite open about his pride in playing for his country, and for Wilander, that’s a fantastic example young players can follow.
“Well, Novak Djokovic is one special human being. That we know. For him to have the drive to still go out there, trying to win matches in, of course, the big tournaments, but even in the small tournaments, and to play Davis Cup is absolutely incredible. It’s impressive that, physically, he wants to put in the effort.”
“But practising when you are his age and when you have won as much as him, it’s an absolute pleasure. I’m not talking about the gym sessions, but I’m talking about hitting the tennis ball against, remember, he’s on tour, the likes of Jannik Sinner, Carlos Alcaraz, Daniil Medvedev.”
Djokovic still seems to be highly motivated to compete, albeit that is likely limited to a few selected competitions. He candidly admitted that the Davis Cup and Grand Slams are the most important events for him at this stage of his career, and it shows in the way he approaches both of those.
One thing that makes Wilander pause is the likely lack of matches the Serbian player will have in the future. As good as Djokovic is, he has not really proven himself to be immune to form dips, especially when not playing for a while.
Like most players, Djokovic does need an event to get himself into shape, and Wilander wonders whether playing less will impact his level. What will happen when he starts to lose more and more matches, even to players outside the top 10?
“Can he, though, do well in the Grand Slams without playing that many tournaments? Can he do well in the Grand Slams if he goes to Shanghai with any feeling that this is not important?”
“Because at some point when he starts losing to guys that are one, two or three in the world, but also guys that are 10 to 20 in the world, his confidence might be affected, and the other guys’ confidence is going to grow.”
