According to Mats Wilander, Novak Djokovic will have to be careful on his way to his 25th Grand Slam title if he competes without adequate warm-up training.
Djokovic’s Olympic gold medal triumph was a double-edged sword, as he chose to take time off rather than play in Canada or Cincinnati, making him an interesting prospect in New York without a warm-up period.
He too had to cancel training in the last 24 hours due to an injury, but Wilander praised the legendary Serb for his commitment to Olympic glory.
“Of course, that makes everyone involved in the sport happy,” Wilander said in an interview with Eurosport. “We can now say quite clearly, whether it’s a woman or a man, that the person who has won 24 majors, the Olympic gold, the Davis Cup and won the most ATP 1000 tournaments – and he has the best head-to-head comparison with his rivals, the big three – that he is quite simply the BOAT, the best player of all time.”
“I was very excited. I was very surprised that he managed to do that despite the pressure, compared to trying to win Wimbledon. This is his last Olympics and he’s doing it on perhaps his least favourite surface, on what many would say is his least favourite court, which is Philippe Chatrier.
“But he’s not finished yet, and I said at Wimbledon that I believe he will win one, two or even three more majors.”
“And that will give him the energy to keep going and fight because he loves the challenge that the younger players present to him and he’s starting to turn the fans around in a very, very interesting and healthy way where people, myself included, are seeing him away from these two young guys, [Jannik] Sinner and [Carlos] Alcaraz, want to see pushed.”
Novak Djokovic’s scalp is still a big one, says Wilander.
But the fact that he didn’t play early is interesting to Wilander, who said that even at 37, his scalp is still a big scalp for players.
“Novak doesn’t even play a hard court tournament before the US Open,” Wilander added. “I don’t know how long it’s been since that happened, especially if it’s his decision not to play.”
“I suspect and expect him to play better than ever because I think getting to the Wimbledon final is a little confidence booster.”
“Now he knows his knee is OK. So I think you’re going to see a Novak who will be extremely focused at the start of the tournament. And what really helps when you don’t play a tournament on the same surface before a major is the player’s concentration in the first few rounds. That’s better than if he won a tournament in, say, Cincinnati or the Canadian Open.”
“I think Novak knows he’s good enough, but he also knows he has to be careful, even if it’s on his favorite surface.”
“Literally everyone is a hard court specialist. So I think he can play his way into good form in the second week. But he has to be careful. He has to be really careful. A lot of players are excited about the chance to play Novak Djokovic early in a Grand Slam tournament, even though he’s only 37 years old.”
“Many players are tired,” he continued. “This year is obviously very specific with the Olympics, but when we think about new names that could win it.”
“What if Novak Djokovic won the gold medal at the Olympics? Maybe that would be a relief for him and the realization: ‘Hey, I can still beat these guys.'”
“That was in two sets out of three. I think he’s better in three sets out of five. So it’s very open, which tells me the men’s game is probably in one of the healthiest situations it’s been since Rafa Nadal. Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray have started to challenge Roger Federer.”
“Everyone knows they can win, everyone knows they can lose. And nobody except Novak Djokovic is really aiming for a significant number of Grand Slam wins. So I’m expecting an incredible two weeks.”
