Novak Djokovic is still waiting for a tournament victory in 2024. Image: keystone
Novak Djokovic has been waiting for a tournament victory for six months. Off the pitch he causes irritation with his appearances and decisions. What’s wrong with the Serbs?
Simon Häring / CH MEdia
The soon-to-be 37-year-old Novak Djokovic is still number 1 in the world rankings, which he has led for 421 weeks. But it is no longer the measure of all things. After a weak start to the season, he is only in twelfth place in the annual rankings.
The Serb has played three tournaments this year – and won none of them. There are just eleven wins. At the Australian Open, eventual winner Jannik Sinner inflicted his first defeat in Melbourne since 2018 in the semi-finals – after 33 wins in a row. Afterwards, Djokovic spoke of “one of the worst Grand Slam games I have ever played”. He was “shocked” by his performance.
Things didn’t get better after that. In his first appearance in Indian Wells since 2019, the record winner (5 successes) failed in the third round to Luca Nardi, then number 123 in the world, also an Italian. Djokovic skipped the tournament in Miami. The fact that he justified this by saying he was trying to find the balance between his private and professional plans fueled talk that there were problems in his marriage, especially since his wife Jelena had not been seen by his side for a long time.
In Madrid, but not at the tournament
After a month’s break, which he used for training in Marbella, Spain and the Serbian capital Belgrade, Djokovic played in Monte Carlo at the beginning of April. There too he left an ambivalent impression and lost to the Norwegian Casper Ruud for the first time in the sixth duel in the semi-finals. Although Djokovic has won the first major clay court tournament of the season twice so far, his last success was nine years ago.
It was not surprising that he decided not to take part in Madrid, as he did in 2021 and 2023, because Madrid is 700 meters above sea level and the conditions are therefore not suitable for preparing for the French Open in Paris (from May 20th). The fact that he was in the Spanish capital at the same time to watch the game between Real Madrid and Barcelona and to be honored as a world athlete for the fifth time the next day was noted with some irritation in the tennis world.
Jelena and Novak Djokovic at the Laureus Awards in Madrid at the end of April. Image: keystone
Separation from coach Ivanisevic
Irritation has been part of the background noise since Djokovic began rewriting the sport’s history books a decade and a half ago. He has repeatedly surprised us with decisions that may seem surprising from the outside, but which gave him new impulses.
He is likely to hope for something similar from the radical restructuring of his sporting environment. After the early elimination in Indian Wells, he suddenly parted ways with coach Goran Ivanisevic. As of 2018, the Croatian had 12, almost half of Djokovic’s now 25 Grand Slam titles at his side. Ivanisevic then spoke to the Serbian media about a “feeling of tiredness and satiety” and that they had had “enough of each other”. But the separation takes place in friendship.
The successor has not yet been decided. As before, the former Serbian doubles specialist Nenad Zimonjic accompanies Djokovic to tournaments. It was the biggest, perhaps most important adjustment that Djokovic made in the last few months, but not the only one. Last autumn he separated from his agents Edoardo Artaldi and Elena Cappellaro, whom Djokovic had stuck with even though she had provided false information in his travel declaration in the wake of his expulsion from Australia in early January 2022. The Italian woman had not declared that he had not only been in Spain but also in Serbia before entering the country.
Goran Ivanisevic (right) is no longer Djokovic’s coach. Image: keystone
The next castling came at the beginning of May when Djokovic announced that he would no longer count on the services of fitness coach Marco Panichi. The Italian will be replaced by an old acquaintance: As between 2009 and 2017 and 2018 and 2019, the Austrian Gebhard Gritsch will take over. Novak Djokovic has only not (yet) replaced the two physiotherapists Miljan Amanović and Claudio Zimagila in the last few months.
The competition is stumbling
Djokovic wants to get the finishing touches for the French Open at the Masters tournament in Rome. The fact that the competition has recently had to struggle with problems plays into his hand: Carlos Alcaraz (arm) and Jannik Sinner (hip) are not competing in Rome. Alexander Zverev and Holger Rune are looking for form, Stefanos Tsitsipas and Casper Ruud disappointed in Madrid.
And French Open record winner Rafael Nadal (14 titles) has been injured or recovering almost constantly over the last two years and has never been able to celebrate more than three victories in a row during this period. Defending champion Novak Djokovic will probably compete again in Paris as the crown favorite, despite the question marks he has recently caused.
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