Noted tennis coach Patrick Mouratoglou reflected on Novak Djokovic's Olympic triumph, saying that the Serbian could play for three or four more years.
Funnily enough, Djokovic seems to have a similar idea about that because the Serbian hinted at possibly playing at the next Olympics in Los Angeles in 2028. The Olympic Games are four years away, and it seems like the 37-year-old agrees with Mouratoglou that he could play competitive tennis in four years.
As impossible as it sounds, it's not entirely out of the question. If Djokovic was motivated enough to try and do that, he could certainly find a way to do so. Nobody can predict how competitive he will be, but Mouratoglou laid out in convincing terms how and why he thinks that the 24-time major winner could have three or four years left.
The Frenchman worries most about motivation because it's tough to keep it, especially after winning that elusive gold medal. This whole season looked like he struggled with motivation until the Olympics, and then he steamrolled everybody when he found it.
"I think Novak can still play 3 or 4 years at the highest level. The real question is about his motivation. I think he really struggled with motivation until the Olympics."
"Everybody felt like it was the end for Rafa, Novak felt it too. For sure, it hit his motivation really hard. But after that, Rafa came back on clay, his level was good and I think this gave extra motivation to Novak."
"Sinner started to play great. Alcaraz again, I think it touched his ego, and he came back really strong and finally won the title that he was chasing his whole career, which was a gold medal at the Olympics to complete his collection of trophies."
Ultimately, we can't know how Djokovic truly felt. We can only go by what we saw, and that was below-average tennis from arguably the greatest tennis player of all time for most of this year until the Olympics, when he looked like himself again.
What happens in the future is not easy to predict. If he can find whatever powered him at the Olympic Games in the French capital, he can certainly be competitive for a few more years.
If he reverts to the first part of the year, however, it's unlikely that he will be able to keep himself going until 2028. Mouratoglou thinks that youngster Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner could push him to remain committed to tennis, but it will largely depend on whether Djokovic sees it that way.
"So what's gonna happen now in the future? He's in great shape, he plays unbelievable tennis. He's ready to compete, I think, 2, 3, 4 years at the highest level. But he needed this competition between him and Roger and Rafa to be the greatest."
"The only confrontation he can have now is probably Carlos and Jannik pushing him, beating him, him feeling his ego touched and wanting to show that he's still great."
0 Comments