Novak Djokovic has been keeping a low profile since the US Open, where Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner battled it out for another Grand Slam title.
Alcaraz beat Sinner in the US Open final, ensuring that one of the two players has won each of the last eight Grand Slam titles.
Djokovic represents the most recent champion other than Alcaraz and Sinner, having clinched the 2023 US Open title.
The former ATP number one also claimed the Australian Open and French Open titles that year, as well as reaching the Wimbledon final.
This year, the Serbian legend reached the semifinals of all four Grand Slams, most recently falling to eventual champion Alcaraz in New York.
Photo by Clive Brunskill/Getty ImagesPatrick Mouratoglou notices Novak Djokovic change amid Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner rise
The emergence of Sinner and Alcaraz has, however, coincided with a negative change in Djokovic, according to renowned coach Patrick Mouratoglou.
He said on his Instagram: “Two years ago, Novak is on the top of the world, and he was saying ‘36 is the new 26, my body is in perfect shape, and I have no issues there’.
“From there, being on the top of the world, a few months later, he starts to lose against those two guys, Jannik and Carlos.
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“And now what is he saying? He’s saying ‘my body is not strong enough to fight those two guys in Grand Slams in five sets’, and we’ve seen it.
“He’s coming from ‘my body’s perfect to my body’s weak compared to those two guys because of the age’.
“I mean, I don’t know if it’s the case or not, but what I feel is that he believes it. And just the fact that he believes that is already so different from the way he was thinking before.
“Before he was clearly not at the level of the two others, which were Roger [Federer] and Rafa [Nadal] when he was a bit younger, but he was saying, ‘I’m going to be better than them’, and now he’s saying ‘they’re (Sinner and Alcaraz) better than me in five sets with my body’.
“He didn’t say it that way, but clearly meant ‘I have no chance’. I see more of a change of mindset that has consequences on his physical than a change of physical, because he started to lose against them literally three months at the Australian Open after playing one of the best seasons of his career, with again three Grand Slam titles and one final.”
Novak Djokovic has nothing to prove against Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz
Djokovic has indeed come up short against Sinner and Alcaraz in recent times, losing to the Italian at Roland Garros and Wimbledon before his US Open defeat to the Spaniard.
But the fact that he managed to reach the last four of all four Grand Slams in 2025 is a stunning feat in itself, with the veteran having turned 38 in May.
Given the high standards that he has set himself for so many years, the Serbian will likely be disappointed with constantly falling short against the duo, but he simply has nothing to prove in that regard.
The pair are a class above at this moment in time, while Djokovic spent the majority of his career trying to get the better of Federer and Nadal.
YearAustralian OpenFrench OpenWimbledonUS Open2023Novak DjokovicNovak DjokovicCarlos AlcarazNovak Djokovic2024Jannik SinnerCarlos AlcarazCarlos AlcarazJannik Sinner2025Jannik SinnerCarlos AlcarazJannik SinnerCarlos AlcarazMen’s Grand Slam champions since 2023
And he did that more often than not, boasting a 27-23 win-loss record over Federer and a 31-29 record over Nadal.
Against Alcaraz meanwhile Djokovic is 5-4, but his record against Sinner is 4-6, which will be very hard to overturn at this stage of his career.