{"id":4602,"date":"2025-07-12T16:07:03","date_gmt":"2025-07-12T16:07:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/4602\/"},"modified":"2025-07-12T16:07:03","modified_gmt":"2025-07-12T16:07:03","slug":"novak-djokovic-plans-to-play-wimbledon-for-sure-after-semifinal-loss-to-jannik-sinner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/4602\/","title":{"rendered":"Novak Djokovic plans to play Wimbledon \u2018for sure\u2019 after semifinal loss to Jannik Sinner"},"content":{"rendered":"

Follow live coverage<\/a> of the Wimbledon women\u2019s singles final<\/a> between Amanda Anisimova<\/a> and Iga Swiatek<\/a><\/p>\n

THE ALL ENGLAND CLUB, LONDON \u2014 Novak Djokovic said he was \u201cquite a bit\u201d physically compromised during his defeat to Jannik Sinner at Wimbledon on Friday, but insisted this wasn\u2019t bad fortune but \u201cjust age\u201d and that despite recent injuries, he plans to return to Centre Court \u201cfor sure.\u201d<\/p>\n

Djokovic looked a step slow in Friday\u2019s 6-3, 6-3, 6-4 defeat to Sinner after a painful fall in his quarterfinal win over Flavio Cobolli two days earlier. This felt like Djokovic\u2019s best chance of winning a 25th Grand Slam title, given that he is a seven-time champion and most players find grass so unnatural, but that record remains tantalisingly out of reach.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Djokovic, who turned 38 in May, was not keen to take anything away from Sinner, but said that not being fully fit \u201chonestly, wasn\u2019t really a pleasant feeling on the court.\u201d <\/p>\n

In January, Djokovic had to retire mid-match with a hamstring injury from the Australian Open semifinals against Alexander Zverev.<\/p>\n

When it was put to him that suffering injuries at key moments this year had been unlucky, Djokovic, who has been knocked out in the semis of all three majors this year, said: \u201cIt\u2019s just age, the wear and tear of the body. As much as I\u2019m taking care of it, the reality hits me right now, last year and a half, like never before, to be honest. It\u2019s tough for me to accept that because I feel like when I\u2019m fresh, when I\u2019m fit, I can still play really good tennis. I\u2019ve proven that this year.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut yeah, I guess playing best of five, particularly this year, has been a real struggle for me physically. The longer the tournament goes, yeah, the worse the condition gets. I reach the final stages, I reach the semis of every slam this year, but I have to play Sinner or (Carlos) Alcaraz.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese guys are fit, young, sharp. I feel like I\u2019m going into the match with the tank half empty. It\u2019s just not possible to win a match like that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite the seemingly impossible task of overhauling Sinner and Alcaraz, who have shared the last six slams between them, Djokovic said he would be back at Wimbledon next year.<\/p>\n

\u201cHopefully, it\u2019s not my last match on the Centre Court,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m not planning to finish my Wimbledon career today. So I\u2019m planning to come back definitely at least one more time, play on the Centre Court for sure.\u201d<\/p>\n

Djokovic said that he continues to play his best tennis at the slams, which he\u2019s been clear is all that matters to him. However, it\u2019s also been clear over the last two years that he\u2019s not at the same level over five sets as Sinner and Alcaraz. Djokovic can do it in a best-of-three game format, as he did against Alcaraz in last year\u2019s Olympic final, and he might be able to beat one of them, as he did at the Australian Open in January against the Spaniard. Still, he looks a long way from beating both over five sets at the same tournament.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Maybe Alcaraz will suffer an early exit at the U.S. Open like he did last year, which would massively change the nature of Djokovic\u2019s next Grand Slam assignment.<\/p>\n

However, for an ageing elite athlete, relying on others is a reminder that for much of the first time since he started regularly winning majors in 2011, Djokovic is no longer the master of his destiny.<\/p>\n

(Photo: Susan Mullane \/ USA Today Network via Imagn Images)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Follow live coverage of the Wimbledon women\u2019s singles final between Amanda Anisimova and Iga Swiatek THE ALL ENGLAND…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4603,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[72],"tags":[99,428],"class_list":{"0":"post-4602","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennis","8":"tag-sports","9":"tag-tennis"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4602","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=4602"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4602\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4603"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4602"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4602"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4602"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}