'It's not a matter of life and death anymore': Mouratoglou explains why Djokovic has not won the 25th Grand Slam

Renowned Tennis coach Patrick Mouratoglou has shared his opinion on why Novak Djokovic is not winning Grand Slam titles anymore. read more
Patrick Mouratoglou, who won 10 Grand Slams as a coach with Serena Williams, has questioned Novak Djokovic's hunger and desire, as the former world No.1 has failed to reach the final in the last three Grand Slams.
Djokovic's last Grand Slam final came in 2024 at Wimbledon, where he lost to Carlos Alcaraz. At the US Open 2024, Djokovic lost in the third round, before exiting the Australian Open 2025 at the semi-final stage due to an injury. At the French Open 2025, he lost to Jannik Sinner in the semi-finals after beating Alexander Zverev in the Roland Garros quarter-finals.
STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD
Renowned coach dissects why Djokovic is not winning Grand Slams
While a large section of fans and experts feel Djokovic remains competitive as ever at the age of 38, Mouratoglou feels the 24-time Grand Slam winner is facing the issue of a lack of motivation more than a drop in the level of his tennis.
'His tennis there and I can totally see him winning that match against Jannik,' Mouratoglou said. 'Of course it would be a very tight match, but he has so many in the past and most of the time, he found a solution to win.
'Level wise, he is there. Physically, he is there, but winning those matches is not about the tennis. It is more about the mental side of it.
'I did feel he accepted the dominance of Sinner on him, which is not Novak. I didn't see the Novak I know and I still think his motivation is not high enough.'
Mouratoglou clarified that he didn't mean to say Djokovic had no motivation, but he's not sure whether the drive to prove himself as the best is the same as it was when he played against now-retired Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal.
'It is there [motivation], but I don't know exactly where it is. Is it that I still want to show the world that I'm the best? That was a little bit of his motivation before because everyone was a fan of Roger [Federer] and Rafa [Nadal] and he wanted to prove he was the best.
STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD
'It is a thin line to do everything to play and great match to I'm not going to lose this f***ing match. And this was always Novak.
'I think that was something that really drove him. He lost his drive for the reason that he's the greatest now.'
Mouratoglou also explained why he felt Djoklovc lacked the motivation to beat Sinner. 'Why did I feel that? Because of his body language in the match was different.
'He was smiling at his team. He was kind of enjoying the moment. This is not Novak. He is a fighting beast. In his career, he was closer to being angry and smashing rackets than smiling and being happy to be here.
'Now he is happy to be here in the semi-finals of Grand Slam, competing with those guys and it's not a matter of life and death anymore.
'In the final of the Olympic Games with Novak against [Carlos] Alcaraz on the same exact court ten months ago. Look at the two videos, he was a bull who would do anything to win. It was a question of life and death. This was the Olympic Games.
STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD
'I understand fully when you are fighting the fight of your life to show the world and yourself that you are the best in history, you cannot have the same motivation as he has now to win a Grand Slam. His purpose was the fight against the two others to prove who was the greatest of all-time.
Djokovic, however, will soon have a chance to prove his critics wrong as he aims to win his 25th Grand Slam at Wimbledon, which starts on 30 June.

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Learn with AIFact CheckingText to SpeechAI Summary

Related Articles

NDTV

an hour ago

• NDTV

The Magic Of Carlos Alcaraz

The Stade Roland Garros is named after French World War 1 fighter pilot and aviation pioneer (Eugène Adrien Roland Georges Garros). Over the years, another high-flier, albeit in tennis apparel, became synonymous with the venue. Winning 14 singles titles at one Grand Slam event will have that effect. Most tennis fans in fact believe that what Rafael Nadal managed to accomplish on the red clay of Paris is not just otherworldly, but frankly impossible to replicate. But a certain 22-year-old, who was barely into his second year on this planet when his compatriot, Nadal, won his maiden French Open title in 2005, would no doubt have pictured himself winning title number 15, someday. Carlos Alcaraz will have no memory of how Nadal beat Mariano Puerta to triumphantly lift the Coupe des Mousquetaires 20 years ago, but he made sure every serious tennis fan in the world will forever remember how he came back from being two sets down to successfully defend his French Open crown, while saving as many as three Championship points (match points in a final). Read that again. Only two men before this had saved Championship points en route to winning a Slam title in the Open Era - Gaston Gaudio in 2004 at Roland Garros and Novak Djokovic in 2019 at Wimbledon. Since the Open Era began in 1968, there had been only eight men who had come back from two sets down to win a Grand Slam final. On June 8, Alcaraz became the ninth. The ninth man in 57 years. It's not the most logical of things, but it is a facet of human nature that sometimes it takes a herculean effort to make people realise the obvious. There of course has been a lot of talk, for a while now, about who the worthy successors will be of the Big 3 (Federer, Nadal and Djokovic), and names like Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner have been on top of the list of potentials. But after what we witnessed on the court Philippe-Chatrier of the Stade Roland Garros in the French Open men's singles final this year - a clash of two different but supremely effective playing styles, in what was the longest ever final played at the venue (5 hours and 29 minutes) - there's no doubt that tennis fans will officially anoint both players as the biggest torchbearers of the new era in global men's singles tennis. This is the rivalry in men's tennis to watch out for, for now. The last six Slam titles have been shared by the two best players of this generation. It wasn't a surprise then to hear six-time Grand Slam champion Boris Becker say on Eurosport Germany, "It was the same with Federer, Djokovic and Nadal. What epic duels they've had over 15 years - and that's exactly the level I see Carlos and Jannik at." Seven-time Slam champion, Mats Wilander, told TNT Sports, "I thought: 'This is not possible - they're playing at a pace that is not human.'" A new era in men's tennis has well and truly begun. There's absolutely no doubt that tennis, like most other extremely physical sports, is mostly a young person's game. As the body ages and the reflexes become slower, it takes longer and longer to recuperate physically. Consequently, more and more 'older' players are left by the wayside. This is also one factor that made the likes of Federer, Nadal and Djokovic titans of the sport - they didn't seem to be afflicted by the usual tyrannies of ageing, like most mortals. But even so, to win five Grand Slam titles by the age of 22 is a monumental achievement. Alcaraz is the third youngest man to clinch five Slams after Bjorn Borg (21) and Rafa Nadal (22). But then, Alcaraz has always been "a phenom". He turned professional at the age of 15 in 2018 and broke into the men's top 100 rankings by 2021. He finished as the world number 35 that year (2021), after making it to the US Open quarter-finals - the youngest men's singles Grand Slam quarter-finalist since the then 18-year-old Michael Chang in 1990 at the French Open. From a first-time Grand Slam quarter-finalist to a five-time Slam champion in four years. Now, that is some super-fast progression. However, what is most remarkable about Alcaraz's development, so far, is that he is as comfortable on the fast (not as fast as it used to be of course) Wimbledon grass as he is on the slow, grind-it-out clay of Roland Garros. Most tennis players who come out of the Spanish stable are clay-court masters, because they are reared on clay from a very early age. Out of the 22 Slam titles that Nadal won in his career, 14 were won on clay - that's almost 64% of his total tally. Most people feel that a Spaniard's favourite tennis surface will always be clay, but Alcaraz has turned that stereotype on its head. Some experts feel that clay, in fact, does not really suit his high-risk, high-reward style of play because the longer rallies increase the chances of unforced errors for him, among other factors. So far in his career, Alcaraz has won Slam titles on all three different varieties of courts - hard, grass and clay, having clinched the US Open, Wimbledon and French Open titles. Some might feel hard courts might suit his game the most, but that would be inaccurate, going by his progression - he won the US Open in 2022 as his maiden Slam title, but hasn't won a hard-court Slam since then, while winning two Wimbledon and two French Open titles since then. Even the all-time greats like Federer, Rafa and Novak have been vulnerable on certain surfaces. Federer, who won 20 Grand Slams, managed to win just one French Open title. Nadal won Wimbledon just twice. Djokovic, in fact, is one player who has come very close to being almost invincible on all surfaces, but he, too, clearly prefers hard and grass courts. So, which is Carlos Alcaraz's favourite surface? The scary thing is: he might be a complete all-surface player. Of course, he has miles to go before he can legitimately earn that epithet, but even some of the legends of the game have conceded that he might have the best qualities of the Big 3, rolled into one. Eight-time Grand Slam champion Andre Agassi told TNT Sports, "....You gotta remember this guy has defence and speed like Novak, if not more. He has feel like Federer, you could argue at times if not more. He has RPMs in pace like Rafa. You could argue maybe even more." There have been only four men in this century who have won at least one Grand Slam title four years in a row. Alcaraz is the fourth. The first three were Federer, Nadal and Djokovic. There's a certain steely determination that runs through Alcaraz's veins. And it's not surprising. After all, he does have tennis in his blood. Carlos' father is a tennis player-turned-coach and handed Carlos a racquet at the age of four. That is when he joined the Real Sociedad Club de Campo de Murcia, where his father was coach and administrator. His father lit the spark, and it was noticed by no-nonsense manager Albert Molina when Carlos was just 11. Molina is also from Murcia (like Alcaraz) and was instrumental in the global talent-management company, IMG, signing the prodigy. He also introduced Carlos to former world number one, Juan Carlos Ferrero, who joined the Alcaraz camp as head coach in 2019. A recent Netflix documentary revealed how Molina was quite upset with Alcaraz when the youngster went to Ibiza for a holiday after losing to Nadal in the 2023 French Open. Molina felt the then 20-year-old was not taking his upcoming commitments, including Wimbledon, seriously. Alcaraz had the perfect reply for his manager - his first Wimbledon title, just a few weeks later. This anecdote shows, in many ways, how Alcaraz can switch on in an instant and can fuel himself with positivity and confidence, no matter what the situation. In the French Open final this time, Alcaraz was down love-40, trailing 3-5 in the fourth set against Sinner. He managed to save all three match points to turn the match on its head, before going on to win the fifth set tie-break and the Championship and scripting one of the all-time greatest comebacks in the sport. Alcaraz is only the second male player after Roger Federer to have remained unbeaten in his first five Slam finals. Ferrero, who has been coaching him since Alcaraz was 16, has gone on record to say that even he thought the Spaniard wouldn't be able to come back from that position, but "...with Carlos, everything is possible." Those might just turn out to be prophetic words.

Hindustan Times

2 hours ago

• Hindustan Times

Carlos Alcaraz and Emma Raducanu's hilarious exchange goes viral ahead of US Open Mixed Doubles

Carlos Alcaraz is set to team up with US Open 2021 champion Emma Raducanu in the upcoming US Open. The Spanish tennis sensation, who won his fifth Grand Slam at the French Open recently, will team up with Raducanu in the Mixed Doubles event of the tournament. Ahead of the event, Carlos Alcaraz and Emma Raducanu are still working to get on the same page. The official handle of the US Open dropped snippets of a hilarious interview featuring the two tennis stars. Alcaraz had earlier said that he requested Raducanu to partner with him for the US Open, Sports Illustrated reported. After some hesitation, the Briton, who is ranked 36 in the WTA, agreed. The clip starts with the players being asked to pick a coin flip. Both pick opposite sides, with Raducanu saying she always chooses tails. Alcaraz responded that his choice 'depends on the mood of the day.' The hilarious struggle continued when Alcaraz asked Raducanu what she would pick if they won the coin toss. Raducanu joked that she would let him pick. Alcaraz quipped, 'All the pressure is on me.' The clip ended with both players unable to stop laughing. A total of 16 teams have entered the event till June 16, as per the official website of the US Open. The matches will start from August 19 at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center. A prize money of $1 million will be awarded to the winning team. The format has undergone a revamp this year, with organizers filling it up with dream teams. The upcoming edition of the US Open will feature a blockbuster line-up of stars, including: • Emma Navarro and Jannik Sinner • Zheng Qinwen and Jack Draper • Jessica Pegula and Tommy Paul • Jasmine Paolini and Lorenzo Musetti • Elena Rybakina and Taylor Fritz • Mirra Andreeva and Daniil Medvedev • Madison Keys and Frances Tiafoe • Aryna Sabalenka and Grigor Dimitrov • Iga Swiatek and Casper Ruud • Paula Badosa and Stefanos Tsitsipas • Emma Raducanu and Carlos Alcaraz • Belinda Bencic and Alexander Zverev • Olga Danilovic and Novak Djokovic • Taylor Townsend and Ben Shelton • Sara Errani and Andrea Vavassori • Naomi Osaka and Nick Kyrgios The Spaniard will play with top-ranked British tennis player Emma Raducanu. The Mixed Doubles event will start on August 19. The qualifying matches for the Singles tournament kick off on August 18. Yes, he defeated Jannik Sinner to win at Roland Garros this year.

First Post

6 hours ago

• First Post

Aryna Sabalenka apologises for 'unprofessional' remarks at Coco Gauff: 'I absolutely regret what I said'

Aryna Sabalenka has revealed that she personally apologised to Coco Gauff after dismissing the American's French Open win with 'unprofessional' remarks. read more Arya Sabalenka has apologised to Coco Gauff for comments after French Open loss. Image: Reuters World number one Aryna Sabalenka said she has apologised to Coco Gauff after dismissing the American's maiden French Open triumph, adding that she regrets the comments she made about the 21-year-old after the final. Sabalenka had been poised for victory after claiming the opening set in a tiebreak, only to watch Gauff orchestrate a stunning 6-7(5) 6-2 6-4 comeback to claim her second Grand Slam title. Sabalenka regrets 'unprofessional' remarks at Gauff Sabalenka made 70 unforced errors in the final and later said at a press conference that Gauff won 'not because she played incredible, (but) because I made all of those mistakes' – comments she has since regretted making. 'It was just totally unprofessional of me, I let my emotions get the better of me. I absolutely regret what I said back then,' Sabalenka told Eurosport. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD 'We all make mistakes. I'm only human and I'm still learning in life. We all have those days when we lose control. 'The difference with me is that the world watches me do it, I get a lot more hate afterwards for what I did than other people.' Sabalenka said she had reached out to Gauff personally afterwards to apologise. 'I wanted to apologise and make sure that she knows that she absolutely deserved to win the tournament and that I respect her. I never intended to attack her,' Sabalenka added. 'I was super emotional and not very smart at that press conference. I'm not necessarily grateful for what I did. 'It took me a while to look at it again, to go into it with my eyes open and to understand. I realised a lot about myself.' Having lost two Grand Slam finals this year, Sabalenka will now turn her attention to the grasscourt swing, warming up for Wimbledon by playing at the Berlin Open this week.