Famous tennis broadcaster shares concerns about Novak Djokovic’s fitness heading into Indian Wells

Novak Djokovic got a terrible knee injury during his Australian Open quarterfinals win against Carlos Alcaraz.

Famous tennis broadcaster shares concerns about Novak Djokovic’s fitness heading into Indian Wells

Novak Djokovic (Image via ATP/X)

Popular tennis broadcaster Marcus Buckland has expressed concerns about Novak Djokovic‘s fitness in the 2025 season. The Serb has had an injury-prone start to the year, with fitness issues looming large ahead of the first Masters 1000 of the season at Indian Wells.

Buckland believes that Djokovic is still an elite competitor and can pull off a surprise if he gets a favorable draw. However, the key to his success at this stage of his career will depend on his fitness.

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It’s all going to be down to his fitness. I saw images of him the other day limping, so we don’t entirely know where he is physically heading into Indian Wells. There are one or two question marks there. The guy is almost superhuman, but he can’t go on forever and it has suddenly started to look a little more difficult for him to do what he wants to do. It’s difficult to find your consistent best if your body is not allowing you to do that. Give him a half decent draw, his experience and he obviously has the chance to challenge anywhere when he is at his best, but it is getting harder.

Marcus Buckland said in an interview to Tennis365

Djokovic has not won an ATP title since the ATP Finals in 2023. In fact, his only title since that victory in Italy came at the Paris Olympics, where he won the gold medal against Carlos Alcaraz.

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It is the same with Murray as you never want to write off these great champions until they have given every last ounce to revive their glory days, as these guys love to prove people wrong. He will be doing everything he can to be as fit as he can be and come Roland Garros and Wimbledon, given a favourable draw and if his body doesn’t let him down, of course he has a chance.

Marcus Buckland added

The lack of titles in the past 15 months has been worsened by his injury concerns. He got injured during his Australian Open campaign and eventually had to retire from his semifinal against Alexander Zverev after losing the first set.

Novak Djokovic in with a chance to boost ranking at Indian Wells

Novak Djokovic has said that climbing the ATP Rankings is no longer his main goal. However, he knows how important the next few weeks are as he returns to play on American hard courts.

Novak Djokovic
Novak Djokovic (Image via X)

The former world No. 1 is playing fewer tournaments now to avoid injuries but still get enough practice. This plan did not work at the first Grand Slam of 2025. He had to pull out of his Australian Open semi-final against Alexander Zverev due to a hamstring injury.

Djokovic is now fully fit for the first ATP Masters 1000 tournament of the season. He is defending just 50 points after losing early at Indian Wells last year. If he wins the title this time, he will gain 950 points. He might also decide to play at the Miami Open for a chance to earn more points.

Djokovic is currently ranked No. 7. Winning at Indian Wells could move him back into the top four. This would help him avoid early matches against Carlos Alcaraz, Zverev, and Jannik Sinner at the French Open. His lower ranking at the Australian Open led to a tough quarter-final match against Alcaraz, which caused him to withdraw from his next match.