Novak Djokovic made an interesting admission after losing the 2024 Wimbledon Championships final to Carlos Alcaraz, but former ATP player Jimmy Connors wasn't a fan of it.
Connors is generally a fan of the Serbian legend because both of them are legends of the sport, and they love to win. The American was known back in his day as a competitive player who would do anything to win, and he won a lot.
He still holds the record with the most trophies ahead of Roger Federer, as the American has 109, and the Swiss player finished with 103. Due to that obsessive nature with winning, Connors was stunned by Djokovic, admitting defeat, in his eyes.
It happened after Alcaraz bested him in the Wimbledon final, after which Djokovic spoke about his opponent and Jannik Sinner in very flattering terms.
"Being able to reach the final of Wimbledon gives a great confidence boost. But I also feel like in a matchup against the best player in the world right now for sure, other than Jannik, both of them are the best this year by far, I feel like I’m not at that level."
"In order to really have a chance to I guess beat these guys in Grand Slam latter stages or Olympics, I’m going to have to play much better than I did and feel much better than I did."
The 37-year-old admitted that the young players were better than he was, and if he wanted to beat them, he would have to get to their level. That's not something Connors would ever admit, as he explained in his Advantage Connors podcast, claiming that the 24-time major winner should have phrased his sentence differently.
"Man I would never admit that. That’s just me. I would think that, from the inside of me I’d be saying I’m gonna do everything to try and stay up there and compete with them. And to be as good as I could to match them as opposed to saying I am not on their level."
"Sometimes, we always talk about confidence and the mental aspect of this, you don’t want everyone to go in feeling defeated. “And against a Sinner or an Alcaraz, to say well I’m not on your level, maybe it’s reverse psychology that he’s throwing out there that, then if I win, I’m superhuman!"
It's unlikely that it was any kind of reverse psychology, but more Djokovic simply admitted what he believed to be true at that moment. Obviously, we know that the Serbian likely believes that he can turn things around in his favor.
That's what he's been doing all his tennis career, and he's been performing better lately, so he might have even started with those statements. The rest of this year will truly prove whether he's anywhere close to their level or whether he's better. Still, it was a damaging admission, according to Jimmy Connors.