Since the 2023 US Open, Novak Djokovic’s record-breaking 24th Grand Slam, the Serbian icon has gone almost three years without adding to his collection of slam titles. The drought isn’t the longest in the GOAT’s career, and at the ripe old age of 38 (he turns 39 in May), there’s no guarantee it will ever end.
The body — one that moved like a ballet dancer for the better part of two decades — suddenly started sending invoices. The semi-finalists are out. Withdrawal. The left thigh is bound with the kind of complicated carving structures you usually see in a physio book. Older than the average retiree, he is now being written off in quarterly installments by experts who mistakenly warned of a downturn.
Online betting sites seem to agree. The latest tennis odds at Bovada have Nole at 10/1 for the French and US Opens, and a 7/1 underdog at Wimbledon, behind two modern stars Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner. But as these three victories will prove, take Djokovic out of your danger. Here are the best achievements of the GOAT’s “drought”.
Olympic gold at last
Let’s be honest about what Djokovic walked into on Court Philippe-Chatrier on August 4, 2024. He had played one match in eight weeks since meniscus surgery. That match – the Wimbledon final against Carlos Alcaraz – ended in straight defeat. His opponent now: the 21-year-old Alcaraz himself, fresh off the Roland Garros and Wimbledon titles, playing some of the most explosive tennis of his already impressive career. Nole’s knee pin had not yet come off. He was 37 years old. This was the Olympic final.
What followed throughout the 94 minutes in the first set alone was as close to a battle of wits as a stadium can offer. Alcaraz has thrown everything at that knee – a shot that pulls Djokovic wide, an angled shot that demands a full run, stinging bombs designed to test whether a hardened meniscus has seized up. It does.
Thirteen break points were traded in a first set that felt like three. Alcaraz went 0-40 in the fourth game and couldn’t get him out. At 3-3 on the move, Djokovic dropped four straight points with the calmness of a man who has been on fire before. Despite the number of medals, he had never – no one had, in an Olympic final – but you wouldn’t know it from his body language.
The second break was a demolition: 7-2, clinical and cold. When Alcaraz’s last forehand cleared the net, Djokovic collapsed into the mud and cried. Not the nod from the designated winner we’ve been used to over the years. Full, moving tears – the kind from somewhere older than tennis, older than sport. The one medal he was wearing was taken eight weeks after the surgery, on the court where his meniscus was released. And it was all wrapped up in his beloved Serbian flag in front of the eyes of the world.
Injury Condemned
Djokovic arrived at Rod Laver Arena for the quarterfinals of the Australian Open against Alcaraz in January 2025 with a medical coach already tending to his left thigh. Ranked outside the seed, at 37 years old, he is facing the man who just beat him in Paris months ago – the non-Olympic version, the loss of tuneup Wimbledon – and who was carrying the weight of expectation of the real title.
Leg gave a warning at 4-5 in the first set. Djokovic took time off sick, disappeared for a while, came back – and lost the lid quietly anyway. He then began to develop the Djokovic formula, which is less a tactical system than a philosophy: take everything until your opponent has nothing left to give you, and break the game apart.
He broke 1-0 in the second, held the lead, and became more important in every game. In the third, an exchange of 22 strokes ended with a forehand win that pulled Rod Laver Arena to its feet. Moments later, a back-to-net lob sprint – the kind of defense no 37-year-old should produce – had the crowd roaring with something approaching disbelief.
He saved a break point at 5-2 in the fourth and roared to his first win. 4-6, 6-4, 6-3, 6-4 in three and a half hours. Head-to-head: extended to 5-3 in his favor.
“I felt like a Grand Slam finalist,” Djokovic said afterwards. “Give us everything.” He was not exaggerating.
Going Back Years
Five straight losses to Jannik Sinner. Zero wins. The lack of a head-to-head had developed its own narrative gravity: the next generation missed him, and so emphatically.
Here it is, Sinner: the world number 1, the two-time defending Australian Open champion, a five-match unbeaten run against Djokovic, and playing in front of a Rod Laver Arena crowd that was expected to see history unfold. Finally, they would see history. And it’s better than the kind they thought they’d see.
Djokovic lost in sets one and three. He stared twice at the exit. He stepped back twice. Soni won 90 percent of his first points in the third set, but the Serbian refused to give up. In the fourth, he saved two crucial break points at 4-3 by lifting his forehand over 140 km/h to knock Sinner out of position. In the fifth, he saved all eight break points. Eighth. Including three from 0-40 down to 4-3 – the kind of pressure situation that breaks down players in their early twenties and builds an unstoppable mental arsenal. His only chance at halftime in the fifth came at 3-3 in the seventh, from 15-40. He won five points in a row. That’s enough. Final score: 3-6, 6-3, 4-6, 6-4, 6-4 in four hours and nine minutes.
“I think you guys got your ticket price,” Djokovic said with a smile after the match, saying he deserved 10% of the gate. His 11th Australian Open final awaits. Sinner’s unbeaten Australian Open run from 2023? It’s over.
