"Was weird seeing Novak Djokovic try to generate energy for a semifinal" - Andy Roddick on Serb "searching" for motivation against Jannik Sinner

2003 US Open winner Andy Roddick recently stated that watching Novak Djokovic strive for motivation at the Australian Open 2024 was an unusual experience.

Djokovic suffered his first defeat at the Australian Open since 2018. He lost 1-6, 2-6, 7-6(6), 3-6 in the semifinals to Italy's Jannik Sinner, who went on to lift the Norman Brookes Challenge Cup.

The Serb's performance was well below his standard throughout the Melbourne Major. In the first couple of rounds, he struggled past opponents like Dino Prizmic and Alexei Popyrin, who were ranked much below him.

Roddick, who walked away from professional tennis in 2012, recently weighed in on Djokovic failing to come up with mental goods against Sinner in the semifinal.

"Time is undefeated, right? And he [Djokovic] has fought it off as well as anyone. From where I sat, it was weird seeing him try to generate energy for a semifinal, especially at his favorite place, Australia, and I felt like for those first two sets, he was trying to find motivation and energy. The match against Sinner was the first time in a long time I saw him kind of searching for an energy source or motivation source on top of a match-up that has very quickly become a difficult one for him," Roddick said in the latest episode of the 'Served with Andy Roddick' podcast (20:00 to 23:34)

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"Novak Djokovic's ability to kind of find a way to motivate himself is also a superpower" - Andy Roddick

Novak Djokovic

During the same episode of the Served with Andy Roddick podcast, Andy Roddick also said Novak Djokovic has done a commendable job in keeping himself motivated through the years.

"He's normally good at finding someone to fight with, you know, and using that as a tool to kind of get him going. Frankly, we've all been there. Novak way less than the rest of us, which is why he is who he is. The rest of us, you know, are in our garages doing podcasts," Roddick said.

Roddick further claimed that the Serb's drive to win was one of his superpowers.

"His ability to kind of find a way to motivate himself is also a superpower, right? People like he acts this way. I'm like, no, that's a tool you're looking at it the wrong way. He uses it as a tool. We might not like it, it might be uncouth, but we can't argue with the results of it," the American added.