{"id":214940,"date":"2025-10-21T07:31:15","date_gmt":"2025-10-21T07:31:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/214940\/"},"modified":"2025-10-21T07:31:15","modified_gmt":"2025-10-21T07:31:15","slug":"novak-djokovic-told-there-is-no-reason-to-play-anymore-in-blunt-verdict-from-former-world-no-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/214940\/","title":{"rendered":"Novak Djokovic told ‘there is no reason to play anymore’ in blunt verdict from former world No 1"},"content":{"rendered":"

Former doubles world No 1 Rennae Stubbs has cast doubt over how much longer Novak Djokovic will keep playing as she suggested Father Time has \u201ccaught up with\u201d the tennis icon.<\/p>\n

Djokovic<\/a> sent a defiant message about his future in tennis\u00a0while speaking with basketball legend Shaquille O\u2019Neal and UFC chief Dana White at an event at the Joy Forum in Saudi Arabia ahead of the Six Kings Slam.<\/p>\n

\u201cLongevity is one of my biggest motivations and I really want to see how far I can go,\u201d said the 24-time Grand Slam champion.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou see across all the global sports, you know, LeBron James is still going strong. Cristiano Ronaldo, Tom Brady played until he was 40. I want to keep going. I also want to live, I mean keep on playing professionally, to see the change that is coming for our sport and I\u2019m super excited about it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked directly about retirement, Djokovic declared: \u201cIt\u2019s not happening. I\u2019m sorry to disappoint them. It\u2019s just not happening.\u201d<\/p>\n

Djokovic fell to a shock straight-set loss to qualifier and eventual champion Valentin Vacherot in the semi-finals of the Shanghai Masters. The 38-year-old struggled physically in the match, which has been a common issue for him this season.<\/p>\n

Speaking on an episode of the Rennae Stubbs Tennis Podcast, Stubbs expressed her concerns about Djokovic and claimed \u201cthere is no reason\u201d for the Serbian to continue playing.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s just breaking down all the time,\u201d said the Australian, who won six Grand Slam doubles titles.<\/p>\n

Tennis News<\/p>\n

Novak Djokovic hints at what may come next as he is forced to retire in Six Kings Slam<\/a><\/p>\n

Jack Draper & Taylor Fritz warn tennis chiefs and call for change after Holger Rune horror injury<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cIf there was a legit injury [against Vacherot], which I\u2019m assuming it was in the first set\u2026 he looked pretty good in the second set. But the same thing keeps happening [in the] latter parts of tournaments for him.<\/p>\n

\u201cNovak just doesn\u2019t look like he has enough on the ball anymore against some of these players. And I mean, look, he\u2019s the greatest player of all time, he\u2019s got all the records. But at some point, and I\u2019ve spoken about it for months, actually maybe even a year or two, Father Time catches up with you.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd it just looks like he doesn\u2019t have quite enough on the ball. He\u2019s not imposing himself enough. He\u2019s not serving as great as he used to when he won a lot of these big tournaments and big matches.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd at some point, it catches up with you, and you just wonder, how long is he going to do this for?<\/p>\n

\u201cI hope I am wrong. I want him to keep playing. But I just feel like, is he going to want to keep just grinding until the French and Wimbledon again? That\u2019s nine months away essentially.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo is he going to grind and play Indian Wells and Miami and Monte Carlo and all these tournaments again just to get to the French?<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s not trying to win another Masters 1000 or a 500, he has got all the records, there is no reason for him to play anymore. I just think mentally it\u2019s such a grind.\u201d<\/p>\n

READ NEXT: Novak Djokovic reveals why he gave advice to Jannik Sinner and names player who helped him<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former doubles world No 1 Rennae Stubbs has cast doubt over how much longer Novak Djokovic will keep…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":214941,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[101,118,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-214940","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-sports","tag-tennis","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/214940","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=214940"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/214940\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/214941"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=214940"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=214940"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=214940"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}