{"id":174224,"date":"2025-09-28T00:51:10","date_gmt":"2025-09-28T00:51:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/174224\/"},"modified":"2025-09-28T00:51:10","modified_gmt":"2025-09-28T00:51:10","slug":"novak-djokovic-dismissed-as-yesterdays-man-by-leading-us-star","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/174224\/","title":{"rendered":"Novak Djokovic dismissed as yesterday’s man by leading US star"},"content":{"rendered":"

Novak Djokovic<\/a> has been dismissed as a no-hoper in his bid to challenge Carlos Alcaraz<\/a> and Jannik Sinner<\/a> at the top of men\u2019s tennis by Frances Tiafoe, who has come under fire on social media following his contentious comments.<\/p>\n

At the age of 38, Djokovic has confirmed he is the third best player in the men\u2019s game after reaching the semi-final of all four Grand Slam tournaments this year.<\/p>\n

Yet the Serbian has admitted he is struggling to find a way past the all-conquering duo of Alcaraz and Sinner in best-of-five-set matches, as he hinted his days of winning Grand Slam titles may be over after the lost in comprehensive fashion against Alcaraz at the US Open earlier this month<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Now American star Tiafoe has caused a stir with some dismissive comments when he was asked whether Djokovic was still a contender to challenge the \u2018Big 2\u2019 in men\u2019s tennis, as he was asked whether he could raise his challenge to challenge the players who have shared the last four Grand Slam titles between them.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m like, yo, who\u2019s that third guy? Who\u2019s that fourth guy?\u201d said Tiafoe, in an interview with the Olympics website.<\/p>\n

More Tennis News<\/p>\n

Jannik Sinner may feel snubbed as Novak Djokovic and Carlos Alcaraz get top billing<\/a><\/p>\n

Novak Djokovic \u2018has no thoughts of retiring and will play in 2026 and 2027\u2019, says leading coach<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cNovak (Djokovic) doesn\u2019t count. He\u2019s 40. I love him, but doesn\u2019t count. He\u2019s 40. He\u2019s a GOAT, he\u2019s the best player of all time. He\u2019s not with those guys.<\/p>\n

\u201cWho is that other guy or two to be there and maybe beat these guys? That would be the quote-unquote Novak and (Andy) Murray \u2013 before Novak went and did what he did.<\/p>\n

\u201cWho are those guys? And there\u2019s a bunch of guys who can be that guy, right? So that\u2019s really motivating me. It\u2019s like, \u2018See big picture.\u2019 That\u2019s motivating.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tiafoe acknowledged what Alcaraz and Sinner bring to the court, but wants to make them feel uncomfortable.<\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone\u2019s puzzle looks different, everyone\u2019s style looks different. But the biggest thing is the intensity they\u2019re playing at, how fast they\u2019re playing at.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith Jannik, you know what product you\u2019re going to get from him every single day. Alcaraz is more similar to me, as in the flashier talent or whatever, but still, his effort and what he brings out is the same every day.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf I can get more of that, bring in a high-intensity effort to practice, I\u2019ll be all right.\u201d<\/p>\n

Djokovic fans were quick to hit back at Tiafoe on social media and correctly suggest their man got closer to challenging for major titles than the out-of-form American in 2025, but he has vowed to return next year with more to his game.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can expect a different version,\u201d added Tiafoe, as he assessed his targets in 2026. \u201cA version that\u2019s yes, he\u2019s going to be a smiling guy, but he\u2019s going to be going to be there f***ing about it and hopefully, hopefully, that gets me to where I\u2019m trying to go,\u201d he continued.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m just trying to gain all the good habits for next year. Next year, I want to have one of the best seasons that I\u2019ve ever had, and I want to start now. I want to start playing the right way, be tough week in, week out.<\/p>\n

\u201cBe consistent. Show up. Show up and see where that takes me. Stay in the water for nine months and see what happens. Being super locked in and not bulls***ting and not messing around \u2013 see where that takes you.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd then you look back in nine months to a year and be like \u2018yeah, that was cool or maybe I should change this\u2019. But that\u2019s my thing. I just want to keep showing up.<\/p>\n

\u201cI got a window. The game\u2019s open, I got a window, I\u2019ve got the capability and the biggest thing probably to being consistent is just be obsessed. You\u2019ve got to be obsessed with the s*** man.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you want to be really good, you have to be obsessed with it, and that will take me a long way.\u201d<\/p>\n

Djokovic has hinted he may be close to retirement after going through two years without winning a Grand Slam title, but he has confirmed he will play in the ATP 1000 event in Shanghai next month.<\/p>\n

READ NEXT: Novak Djokovic \u2018door is closed\u2019 as retirement predicted soon by leading tennis voice<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Novak Djokovic has been dismissed as a no-hoper in his bid to challenge Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":145525,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[442],"tags":[49,48,82,593],"class_list":{"0":"post-174224","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennis","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-sports","11":"tag-tennis"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/174224","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=174224"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/174224\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/145525"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=174224"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=174224"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=174224"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}