The legendary tennis player Novak Djokovic “should never be considered a finished player,” according to former world No. 3 Ivan Ljubicic.
Former Roger Federer coach Ljubicic predicted Jannik Sinner to win the world no. 1 ranking “because he is the strongest,” but the Italian “will not overturn his plans to do so.”
Even though Djokovic has only participated in three ATP events this year and has not yet advanced to the championship round, the legendary Serbian is still ranked #1 in the world, mostly because of his amazing 2023 season.
The 36-year-old advanced to the Australian Open 2024 semifinals in January, but Sinner, the eventual winner, defeated him in four sets.
The 24-time Grand Slam champion withdrew from the Miami Open after suffering an unexpected third-round loss to Luca Nardi in Indian Wells in March.
Before deciding to boycott the current Madrid Open, Djokovic had an encouraging start to his clay-court season, making it all the way to the final four of the Monte Carlo Masters.
After winning 28 of his 30 matches this season, Sinner has been the best player in the men’s game thus far in 2024 and is currently ranked second in the world, which is a career-high position.
Sinner had won two more majors, the Indian Wells Masters and the Rotterdam Open, after winning his first at the Australian Open. A hip problem forced him to withdraw ahead of his quarterfinal Madrid Open encounter against Felix Auger-Aliassime on Thursday.
During an interview with the Italian newspaper La Stampa, Ljubicic discussed Sinner’s mindset and addressed rumors that Djokovic’s dominance is coming to an end.
“We knew how Jannik operates. He strives for continuous improvement rather than concentrating on a single objective (translation from Italian),” he remarked.
Because he is the strongest, Sinner will get to the top, but he won’t renege on his intentions to do so. It’s never easy to win a tournament; the bar is always high.
“Novak Djokovic is a tennis player who will never be viewed as complete. He truly is still a really tough opponent to beat when he’s on the ball, which I’m sure he will be from now on.
Djokovic is giving it a lot of attention because it’s the one match he hasn’t won, though there are undoubtedly a number of reasons why. They will, in my opinion, be worth the same as the 2012 Wimbledon Olympics.
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