Mats Wilander believes Novak Djokovic is possibly even better now than he was 10 years ago, prompting him to predict the Serbian will continue for another ‘four or five years’ before thinking about retirement.
36-year-old Djokovic reached his 11th Australian Open semi-final on Tuesday after defeating Taylor Fritz in four sets. The world No. 1 is bidding for a record 25th Grand Slam title in Melbourne and the odds are firmly in his favour to do so considering he has never lost once reaching the penultimate match.
Wilander was questioned whether he thought Djokovic would like to retire at the top, just as 14-time major winner Pete Sampras did in 2002. ‘’Pete Sampras retired because he was sick of tennis I think, there’s a big difference,” Wilander told Eurosport. “No, I think he’s going retire when he doesn’t feel like putting in the work. “I think he will never lose the feeling and happiness of playing in front of 15,000 people. I think he will always enjoy that because he’s such a warrior out there.
‘’But I think for him when you start losing a little bit, that is what’s really, really important to these guys. “But that’s not the reason they’re playing. They’re playing to be competitive and to challenge themselves. ‘’But that starts with getting up in the morning and doing the work. And when that is not fun anymore, I think that’s when Novak Djokovic will retire.”
Continuing his speculation as to when exactly he thinks Djokovic will announce his retirement, Wilander believes it’s ‘not even close’ to being in the next couple of years. ‘’I think that’s not even close to being in the next year or two,” Wilander said. “Honestly, I think it’s most probably four or five years. And he’s most probably out there wanting to prove that to the rest of the world. “But it’s kind of like [when] we flew to the moon. He was probably thinking, ‘I’m doing something for mankind here’, and obviously doing something for himself, which is making us realise that 40 is not what we think 40 should be in his eyes and his world.
“40 is just literally just a number. And in fact, I think he’s probably better now than he was when he was number one ten years ago.”
With Djokovic dominating the ATP Tour so efficiently, Wilander believes that men’s tennis has become too ‘predictable’. ‘’He is not up against the same kind of the same kind of calibre of players as Nadal and Federer and Murray as he used to be,” Wilander told Eurosport. “Also, I think he’s much better – much better on grass and better on clay.
“Is it too predictable? I would love to see new faces, I prefer to see new faces. But at the same time, now that Novak has taken it to the level of being the best of all time on the men’s side, I think that we have to appreciate that he’s most probably taking the game to another level, which is good for everybody. ‘’It’s tough for the other players because he’s the first guy to take that step out but he’s ahead of the other guys a little bit. ‘’And then you see Carlos Alcaraz, he has stepped it up. He can challenge Novak in the best and biggest matches. But is it predictable?
“At the moment, it’s pretty predictable. The greatest of all time, I will never say about a tennis player. He’s the best of all time and he’s taking the game to another level, not just what goes on on the court. “And I think that’s what we are starting to appreciate with Novak that we didn’t when Federer and Nadal were around because they were the first to and Novak came and kind of disturbed the peace. “Everybody wanted to see Federer and Nadal and he took it to the level where he passed them. Without them, he wouldn’t be where he is. ‘’We have to appreciate [that]. He’s just such a high level that it’s not gonna last forever.”
