Serbian tennis star Novak Djokovic has ended 2025 as distinctly the third-best player in the world; his quest for a record-extending 25th Major title looking further out of reach than ever before. But he did not seem so far off when he started the year. The Serb may have gone without a Major in 2024, but reaching the Wimbledon final a few weeks removed from knee surgery was certainly credible. Ending his long wait for Olympic gold, beating Carlos Alcaraz in the final, only strengthened his credentials.
And the Australian Open, he sprung up the kind of surprise that showed exactly why he remained dangerous at the biggest tournaments in the world. After picking up an injury while being outplayed during his quarterfinal battle against the Spaniard Alcaraz, he came up with some masterful disruptive tactics to not only scramble his younger opponent but also take his game to another level. He turned the contest around and won in four sets to go into the final four.
With the confidence-boosting win, Djokovic was surely a strong contender for the title. But physical hardship struck, in what would end up becoming a prophecy for the rest of his season. The injury proved to be far more serious than initially expected, prompting him to retire an hour into the semifinal.
He would never quite return to play at the same level, suffering humbling defeats in his next three Major semifinals in which he looked gassed and jaded. In many ways, retirement in Australia perfectly summarises Djokovic’s current predicament. His game clearly still has plenty of highs left in it to compete with and even beat the best of the current crop.
Had he been fit for that semifinal in Melbourne, perhaps all the talk about retirements would have looked premature, maybe even totally forgotten today.
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