Novak Djokovic lost to Jannik Sinner again at the Six Kings Slam, and one of Serena Williams' former coaches thinks the Italian is now better than him.
Djokovic entered the 2024 season after dominating in 2023. He won three Grand Slams and the ATP Finals and finished the year at world No. 1 once again. Those were extraordinary achievements for a man who turned 36 last year.
2024 will also be memorable for Djokovic when he eventually hangs up his racket after he secured the Olympic gold medal that eluded him at the Paris Olympics, overcoming Carlos Alcaraz in the gold medal match.
However, this season has been less successful overall for Djokovic than in recent years. He failed to win a Grand Slam for the first time since 2017. The Serbian came closest at Wimbledon, where he lost in the final to Alcaraz.
Djokovic's lack of dominance in 2024 led to Sinner overtaking him as world No. 1 after the French Open. The 23-year-old has remained at No. 1 since, accumulating a huge lead at the top of the rankings.
Sinner and Djokovic have played three times this year, and the Italian prevailed on all those occasions. After beating the 24-time Grand Slam champion at the Australian Open and Shanghai Masters, Sinner triumphed again at this week's Six Kings Slam.
Alcaraz and Sinner have split this year's Grand Slams, and Roger Federer thinks that, along with Djokovic's being in the latter stages of his career, is a sign that a changing of the guard is taking place at the top of men's tennis.
Although Djokovic played some impressive tennis during his Six Kings Slam defeat to Sinner, Williams' former coach, Rennae Stubbs, speaking on her podcast, said Sinner is now a slightly better player than the legendary Serbian.
"I'll tell you why he cannot get by… I think it's because Jannik is a little bit better. Novak is 37. At some point, you start to lose that dominance and Jannik has that feeling of dominance."
"And confidence factor is huge in big moments, like, particularly in the tiebreak in the first set you could see Jannik was like, ‘This is my time!"
Stubbs remembers when Djokovic was almost unbeatable in tiebreaks because he would raise his game in the most critical moments, but Sinner is capable of beating the 37-year-old even after losing a tiebreak, as happened at the Six Kings Slam.
"Whereas three years ago, when it got to a tiebreak… remember Novak could not lose a tiebreak. So many of these matches would go down to these tiebreakers because they were dominating on the serve, the court was quick. Jannik is almost untouchable on his serve."
Writing Djokovic off is dangerous. The 10-time Australian has proven his doubters wrong so many times, and his doing that again with a resurgence in 2025 cannot be ruled out.
However, Sinner and Alcaraz have undoubtedly been the best players in 2024, and overtaking them next year at the age of 37 will require an extraordinary effort from Djokovic.
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