Novak Djokovic fell at the semi-final hurdle once again at the US Open as Carlos Alcaraz ousted the legendary player.
It now means that he’s lost at the semifinal stage of all four majors this year, leaving his 25th Grand Slam title hanging firmly in the balance.
Retirement speculation among pundits is rife, with Boris Becker predicting whether he will play the US Open again after looking extremely resigned against Alcaraz.
It’s been claimed that Djokovic doesn’t need to win a 25th Grand Slam title to be considered the best ever, but that is clearly the Serb’s motivation right now.
After this year’s event at Flushing Meadows now appears in the rearview mirror, Djokovic has been criticised for something he chose not to do ahead of the tournament.
Photo by Sarah Stier/Getty ImagesJimmy Arias criticises Novak Djokovic
The Serb is running out of time to win a 25th Grand Slam crown, and with Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner playing lights-out tennis, the prospects look bleak.
Arias believes that Djokovic didn’t help himself ahead of the US Open and has advised him what he needs to do in the future.
He said on the Inside-In Tennis Podcast: “That seemed like a bad mistake to me. At the US Open, Djokovic again made the semis, so he’s obviously still the third-best player in the world. There are two guys who are better than him, and he is the third-best player.
“So he doesn’t even need to play that much leading into a major, and he can still make the semis.
The problem is that I don’t think he’s in good enough shape. It’s hard to work as hard as you do in a match without adrenaline, without that feeling. Adrenaline takes so much out of you, and you can’t recreate it in practice.
“I don’t care how much you practice, but I feel like he needs to have a couple of tune-up tournaments to get used to playing. He was almost dying in the first match against Lerner Tien and he was playing the night match.
“And this year’s US Open was not hot at all. Often, you are going to have a very humid and hot day, where it feels like there is no oxygen when you are in New York. They did not have any of those this year, which helped Djokovic make it to the semis, but if he wants to have one more run, he needs one more major for the record. He is going to have to put in a few extra tournaments before the Grand Slam starts.
Djokovic has it all to do to win another Grand Slam
It seemed like a foregone conclusion that Djokovic would get to 25 major titles, but the emergence of Sinner and Alcaraz has thrown a spanner in the works.
Given how dominant those two players are, it’s going to be hard for any 38-year-old to compete with them and win a major prize, even if his surname is Djokovic!
The best that the Serbian can hope for is for one or both of the top two players to be stunned in the early stages of the tournament and open the draw up.
Djokovic will be leaving no stone unturned to try and get back in the winner’s circle and perhaps Arias has a point when it comes to his lack of match practice.