Laver Cup Captain Not Ready to Write Off ‘Dangerous’ Novak Djokovic Amid Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz’s Grand Slam Dominance

Novak Djokovic failed to reach a Grand Slam final since the 2024 Wimbledon but reached the last four in all four Majors this season.

Laver Cup Captain Not Ready to Write Off ‘Dangerous’ Novak Djokovic Amid Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz’s Grand Slam Dominance

L-R: Carlos Alcaraz, Novak Djokovic, Jannik Sinner (Image via X/Carlos Alcaraz 4K, Todo Sobre Tenis, The Tennis Letter)

🔍 Explore this post with:

ChatGPTPerplexityGrok AIGoogle AI

The most consistent player after Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz is Novak Djokovic. Although he has skipped tournaments, the Serb great made the semifinals in every Grand Slam event this year.

At the Australian Open, an injury forced Nole to give the walkover to World No.3 Alexander Zverev, who then suffered a straight-set defeat to Sinner in the final. In Paris, Djokovic suffered a straight-set defeat to Sinner, who later lost a thrilling five-set final to Alcaraz.

Then at Wimbledon, Sinner once again became the reason behind Djokovic’s exit, once again beating him in straight sets before he secured a four-set win over Alcaraz to clinch his first title at SW19. In the recently concluded US Open, Alcaraz went past the Serb in straight sets and defeated Sinner in the final in four sets.

In short, this year’s four Majors were shared by Sinner and Alcaraz, as well as the last eight Majors. The last player to emerge triumphant in the Grand Slam events other than the World No.1 and World No.2 is Djokovic, who won his record 24th Grand Slam title at the 2023 US Open.

The 38-year-old is a shadow of his former self, but despite that, he is playing much better compared to other players, of course, excluding Sinner and Alcaraz. His main goal at present is to win the historic 25th Grand Slam title.

Although Sinner and Alcaraz are in red-hot form and beating them has become an insurmountable task even for Djokovic, Team Europe’s new captain in the Laver Cup, Yannick Noah is not ready to write him off, saying that as long as the tennis great plays, he will be a Grand Slam contender. He told Super Moscato Show on RMC:

Against Alcaraz at the US Open, he played a good match, despite the three-set defeat. It came down to seven or eight points, but Alcaraz won them. You can blame that on youth, but I haven’t forgotten that for Nadal, we always said at the beginning of the season before he won his last Grand Slams: it’s over. As long as Novak plays, he’s always dangerous.

Noah, the winner of the 1983 French Open, pointed out how Grigor Dimitrov took the first two sets off Sinner in the French Open fourth round before, due to an injury, he gave the walkover to the World No.2. He wanted to imply that it’s possible to beat Sinner on the back of a good performance.

Sam Querrey on whether Novak Djokovic could surpass Jimmy Connors’ titles tally

Jimmy Connors stands on top when it comes to the singles titles tally (109) on the men’s tour. He, in fact, was one of the only three players to claim 100 or more titles. After him comes Roger Federer with 103.

Novak Djokovic
Novak Djokovic (via Punto de Break)

Novak Djokovic clinched his 100th title at the Geneva Open this year. Former player Sam Querrey, during the Nothing Major podcast, shared his thoughts on whether Djokovic could surpass Connors.

I don’t think it’s important to him based on what his calendar was this year. The last three tournaments he played were Roland Garros, Wimbledon, and the US Open. If Novak wanted to surpass those guys, he could. He could load up with 250s and win them. We saw this year that he made the semifinals of all four Majors, so in Major tournaments, he’s the third-best player in the world.

Djokovic’s performance at Flushing Meadows helped him get back to the top 4 in the rankings table. But it’s uncertain what his next tournament is going to be. But he has confirmed that he will be featuring in the first edition of the Hellenic Championship in Athens, scheduled to take place from November 2-8.

Also read: Andrey Rublev’s Mother Advises Daniil Medvedev to Take a Break from Tennis After ‘Exhausting his Emotions’