Novak Djokovic critics receive strongly-worded message from tennis insider after slamming Serb for Indian Wells disaster

Novak Djokovic was defended by tennis insider Gill Gross after his disappointing exit from the BNP Paribas Open at Indian Wells. Djokovic was defeated by Botic van de Zandschulp after a grueling three-set battle in the first round of the tournament.

The 23-time Grand Slam champion met with an unfortunate injury at the Australian Open 2025, early glimpses of which were seen in his quarterfinal match against Carlos Alcaraz. Even though he won the match, the Serb had to eventually retire from the semifinals which was followed by him taking a brief break from the sport to recover from his injury. However, he has been unable to fare well in his last two tournaments after coming back on court and has faced back-to-back first-round exits.

His form is currently the talk of the tennis world, as people are speculating if he will recover his old form. Insider Gill Gross slammed this discussion and backed Djokovic on his podcast Monday Match Analysis episode that aired on March 10, 2025.

"If you wanna take a look if you wanna pick apart the fact that two out of the last three slams he has had an injury, yes sure absolutely. Or if you wanna look at his level in a large sample size over the course of the last two years, fair game. But if you want to like actually care about Indian Wells for Djokovic, I don't think that makes any sense because I don't think Novak cares that much," he said. (13:43 onwards)

He also sympathised with Novak Djokovic, highlighting the challenges he faced this year.

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"Novak Djokovic competed hard": Tennis insider throws light on the tennis star's mentality

Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray at Indian Wells - Source: Getty

Novak Djokovic was further praised by tennis insider Gill Gross as he talked about the 38-year-old's mentality. He underlined that the star has been trying to maintain his competitive mentality even after facing hardships earlier this season.

"He competed hard and he brought Andy Murray over, so I think he wanted it and you could tell when he was playing the match that he wanted it. But my main point here is that it's not about how much he wants it when he arrives on-site ready to play the match, it also matters what did the build-up look like, what did February look like," Gross added in the aforementioned podcast.

Novak Djokovic will look to return to winning ways as he eyes his 25th Grand Slam title.