Well the Olympic Tennis Gold Medal is a fitting way for him to retire I would suggest.
Sure he has had a great career but it is now time to move on as much as I admire the man and his tennis ability.
Time ot sit back and and enjoy the memories.
Thanks Djokovic.
clevermike
Hall Of Fame
52849 posts
Since the start of the 21st century we have seen the 3 greatest tennis players reigning supremee in the tennis world - namely Federer, Nadal and Djokovic. The question I asked in 2020 about the future of thee tennis world without them became pertinent already in 2020 have ben i contention ever since.
So lets see what happens since 2020:-
Roger Federer
After suffering from a serious injury for 18 moths and playing in 2 tournaments in 2022 - in which he was beaten in Round 1 Federer announced his retirement from Tounament Tennis in 2022.
Rafael Nadal
Nadal got injured in late 2022 and then tried to make a comeback to tournament tennis in 2023. He never recovered his form and in September 2023 he announced that he would play only in a few tournaments as part of his farewell tour in 2024, So technically he is out of tennis this year. Fact is in his comments after losing in the Roland Gaross Major he said god bye and said he will nt be back in future,
Novak Djokovic
The youngest of the three players had a hugely sccessful tennis year in 2023 - he in November 2023 said he will play tournament tennis until he is not competitive anymore. For him 2024 thus fr was not a good year. He isnow ranked number 4 and can end up as number 6 ranked player in the world dependng on the further performances the US Open by Medvedev and Rublev.
So far this year Djokovic did not win a sigle tournament and there are two tournaments he won last year remaining to be played - namely the APT1000 Paris Master and the NITTO 2024 Championship tourrnment/ Djokovic in 2023 decided not to play in the Chinese and Japaanese series in 2023 - he played in much fewer tournaments in 2024 than he did in 2023/
It is not clear what will happen next as to Djokovic's decision as to playing tennis the rest of 2024. In 2023 he did not take part in the Chinese and Japanese torunaments. In view of his present situation Djokovic may decide to play in the latter tourrnaments starting on 18 September 2024. If he does not there is the danger that he would not qualify to play in the the NITTO Championship in November 2024. Only the top 8 players are invited and his ranking for that now is number 7 to play in that tournament with De Minaur and Fritz plua abother long list of players capable of overtaking him by November 2024,
If he does not play in China he will have to play in other tournaments to try and stay in the Race to play in Turin. Fact is if he loses in the Paris Masters tournamnet and in the Nitto Campionship he will lose as much 2 500 ranking points that will end up with him being out of the top 10 ranked players in the world.
In the end my guess is that Djokovic will annouce that he wiil like Nadal play in some tournament as a farewell gesture to tennin in 2025 - thus ending his reign in tennis over the last three years. It could be a great pity if he decides on such an action - but will likely be the real end to his reign. Indeed Djokovic is and remains the GOAT player ever.