Novak Djokovic Explains Why He Watched Roland Garros Final Despite Not Wanting To

Saturday, 28 June 2025 at 01:00

byJordan Reynolds

Novak Djokovic spoke for the first time about Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner's epic Roland Garros final while practicing with Alcaraz at the 2025 Wimbledon Championships.

Djokovic reached the semifinal of this year's Roland Garros before losing to Sinner. Getting that far at 38 years old, after the Serbian endured a slow start to the clay court swing, was an impressive achievement that showed he could still compete at the top.

Sinner looked sure to win his first Roland Garros title when he held three match points at 40-0 up on Alcaraz's serve at 5-3. Remarkably, Alcaraz recovered from that position and prevailed in a deciding set tiebreak.

The five-hour and 29-minute final was undoubtedly one of the greatest tennis matches ever played. Either man losing the contest was cruel after everything they gave, but that is the brutal reality that Sinner had to come to terms with.

Djokovic made some interesting remarks while practicing with Alcaraz on Centre Court at Wimbledon. When a cameraman asked about the Roland Garros final, the 24-time Grand Slam winner admitted he initially did not want to watch it, but ended up doing so.

"To be honest, I was in my country. My wife wanted to watch the final, but I didn’t want to watch it. In the first part of the match, we went outside for lunch. We came back, and I ended up watching it. Incredible, incredible match. Huge credit to both of them. It was one of the most historic matches we have ever seen."

It is understandable that last year's Olympic Gold Medalist did not want to watch at the start. He had lost the semifinal to Sinner less than two days previously and only returned to Serbia the day before. Switching off from tennis must have felt like the correct thing to do.

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The admiration Djokovic has for his young rivals is also refreshing. Instead of being envious and not wanting to give credit to Alcaraz and Sinner, both of whom he could play during Wimbledon, the tennis legend respected how epic their match was.

Djokovic has been praised by some younger players for how respectful he was to them when they emerged on the ATP Tour. The Serbian doing this might have been influenced by not getting that treatment as a young player.

In past interviews, Djokovic has described how cold Roger Federer, in particular, was to him. Rafael Nadal also acted like this to a lesser degree, but Djokovic says he has always gotten along better with the Spaniard than Federer.

Djokovic's relationships with Alcaraz and Sinner have been much more cordial from the start. He seems to get along particularly well with Alcaraz, and they have contested some incredible matches, such as the 2023 Wimbledon final and the 2023 Cincinnati Open.

Most WTA players also share good relationships, with Paula Badosa and Aryna Sabalenka being particularly close friends. An exception to that trend was Maria Sakkari and Yulia Putintseva's heated clash at the 2025 Bad Homburg Open. The Greek told Putintseva that no one likes her.