{"id":276811,"date":"2025-11-07T07:34:14","date_gmt":"2025-11-07T07:34:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/276811\/"},"modified":"2025-11-07T07:34:14","modified_gmt":"2025-11-07T07:34:14","slug":"novak-djokovic-names-the-most-underrated-player-hes-faced-in-his-entire-career","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/276811\/","title":{"rendered":"Novak Djokovic names the most ‘underrated’ player he’s faced in his entire career"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"\/ Follow us on Google Discover <\/a> <\/p>\n

Novak Djokovic has played over 1,000 matches in his career against a variety of players.<\/p>\n

The Serbian legend has won 24 Grand Slams, defeating the likes of Rafael Nadal<\/a>, Roger Federer, and Andy Murray in major finals.<\/p>\n

He has also lost major finals to the three players listed above\u2026<\/p>\n

\"NovakPhoto by Matthew Stockman\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Djokovic lost multiple Grand Slam finals against just five players in his career: Nadal, Federer, Murray, Carlos Alcaraz<\/a>, and one other tennis icon.<\/p>\n

During an interview in the lead-up to the 2025 Hellenic Championship, Djokovic<\/a> named that player as the most \u2018underrated\u2019 ATP star he faced during his entire tennis career.<\/p>\n

Novak Djokovic says Stan Wawrinka is the most \u2018underrated\u2019 player he\u2019s ever faced<\/p>\n

One name immediately came to Djokovic\u2019s mind when asked to pick the most underrated player he\u2019d competed against.<\/p>\n

\u201cMost underrated player I ever faced, I mean [Stan] Wawrinka<\/a>,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think he is very underappreciated and underrated, considering he is a three-time Grand Slam champion.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think people often forget about him and what he\u2019s achieved.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s achieved more than 90% of the players ever in the history of the game.\u201d<\/p>\n

Djokovic knows all too well how dangerous Wawrinka can be, having lost four of their nine Grand Slam meetings.<\/p>\n

MatchWinnerLoserScore2023 Wimbledon \u2013 3RNovak DjokovicStan Wawrinka6-3, 6-1, 7-62019 US Open \u2013 4RStan WawrinkaNovak Djokovic6-4, 7-5, 2-1 (RET)2016 US Open \u2013 FStan WawrinkaNovak Djokovic6-7, 6-4, 7-5, 6-32015 French Open \u2013 FStan WawrinkaNovak Djokovic4-6, 6-4, 6-3, 6-42015 Australian Open \u2013 SFNovak DjokovicStan Wawrinka7-6, 3-6, 6-4, 4-6, 6-02014 Australian Open \u2013 QFStan WawrinkaNovak Djokovic2-6, 6-4, 6-2, 3-6, 9-72013 US Open \u2013 SFNovak DjokovicStan Wawrinka2-6, 7-6, 3-6, 6-3, 6-42013 Australian Open \u2013 4RNovak DjokovicStan Wawrinka1-6, 7-5, 6-4, 6-7, 12-102012 US Open \u2013 4RNovak DjokovicStan Wawrinka6-4, 6-1, 3-1 (RET)Novak Djokovic and Stan Wawrinka\u2019s Grand Slam head-to-head record<\/p>\n

Two of those matches were Grand Slam finals, as Djokovic came up short against Wawrinka at Roland Garros in 2015 and at the US Open<\/a> the following year.<\/p>\n

\"NovakPhoto by FABRICE COFFRINI\/AFP via Getty Images<\/p>\n

His 2015 French Open final defeat was particularly memorable, as Djokovic missed out on a golden opportunity to complete his Career Grand Slam.<\/p>\n

When Djokovic beat the greatest clay-courter of all time, Nadal, in the quarterfinals, he looked destined to finally get his hands on the La Coupe des Mousquetaires trophy.<\/p>\n

It wasn\u2019t to be, however, as Djokovic was denied by the brilliant Swiss star, who collected the second of his three major titles in style.<\/p>\n

Djokovic won his first French Open title in 2016, defeating Murray in the final, but would no doubt have loved to get the job done against Wawrinka a year earlier.<\/p>\n

The pair haven\u2019t played each other in over two years, but had a chance to meet this week in Athens.<\/p>\n

Wawrinka got off to an excellent start in the Greek capital, but couldn\u2019t quite get over the line in his second-round match.<\/p>\n

Stan Wawrinka loses to Lorenzo Musetti in Athens thriller<\/p>\n

Picking up his fourth tour-level win of the season, Wawrinka took down Botic van de Zandschulp, 2-6, 7-6, 7-5.<\/p>\n

\"StanPhoto by Hu Chengwei\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Advancing to the second round, Wawrinka met ATP Finals-chasing Lorenzo Musetti<\/a> and made a fast start.<\/p>\n

Looking to pick up his first top 10 win in over a year, Wawrinka won the opening set 6-4, as he edged closer to a rare quarterfinal appearance.<\/p>\n

MatchOpponentOpponent\u2019s rankScore2024 Stockholm Open \u2013 QFAndrey Rublev77-6, 7-62023 Cincinnati Open \u2013 2RFrances Tiafoe106-3, 6-42023 Indian Wells \u2013 3RHolger Rune86-2, 6-7, 7-52022 Swiss Indoors \u2013 1RCasper Ruud36-4, 6-42022 Moselle Open \u2013 2RDaniil Medvedev46-4, 6-7, 6-3Stan Wawrinka\u2019s last five Top-10 wins<\/p>\n

Coming just a few points away from victory, the 40-year-old lost out in a second-set tiebreaker, 6-7 [5-7], as Musetti kept his Turin hopes alive.<\/p>\n

Pushing on in the decider, Musetti secured the win 4-6, 7-6, 6-4, booking his place in the quarterfinals, where he will meet Alexandre Muller.<\/p>\n

Set to jump up to 155th in the world thanks to his efforts in Athens, Wawrinka will now rest up ahead of the 2026 ATP Tour season.<\/p>\n

Only time will tell how much longer Wawrinka will compete for, but it certainly looks like he\u2019s still got more left in the tank\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Follow us on Google Discover Novak Djokovic has played over 1,000 matches in his career against a variety…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":276812,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[72],"tags":[430,433,99,23283,428],"class_list":{"0":"post-276811","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennis","8":"tag-atp","9":"tag-novak-djokovic","10":"tag-sports","11":"tag-stan-wawrinka","12":"tag-tennis"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/276811","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=276811"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/276811\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/276812"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=276811"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=276811"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=276811"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}