Novak Djokovic 2025 season prediction: What to expect of the man who has completed tennis?

Novak Djokovic might be entering the season where he’ll feel the most pressure in ages. As odd as that might sound, Djokovic will have a tremendous amount of pressure because some believe that he’s essentially playing for his career.

In a recent Brisbane International press conference, Djokovic acknowledged that he feels good enough to play for a couple more years. He also said that despite that, how motivated he is will ultimately determine how long he will play.

If he produces another lackluster season like 2024, there is a very good chance that he won’t be coming back for 2026. With that in mind, let’s take a look at what 2025 might have in store for him.

To do that, we have to look back at last year. What went wrong in 2024 for Djokovic? Arguably a lot, but it’s not so black and white. While his performances early in Australia didn’t look as impressive as years past, nobody worried too much. It was only after Jannik Sinner beat him easily that people started to wonder.

He returned at the Indian Wells Masters and lost to Luca Nardi, a shocking defeat and a very nervous display. Monte Carlo yielded another surprising loss, this time to Casper Ruud, who before that match could barely touch Djokovic. Even his comfort event, Rome, didn’t go well, though it could be partly blamed on the bottle incident.

Geneva was another washout, and then came Roland Garros where he suffered an injury, something we haven’t seen often happen. His play wasn’t impressive, his body was betraying him, and everything seemed to be unraveling.

Even Wimbledon didn’t offer anything new. He made the final simply because he’s so much better than everybody else on grass, but in the final, he suffered another loss to Alcaraz, this time even easier than the year before.

By this time, it was clear that Djokovic wasn’t playing at his optimum level. The Olympics came, and it was his best performance of the year. It was arguably Djokovic of old, but he wouldn’t sustain it as both the US Open and Shanghai were events where he played decent enough but not as well as he could have.

Where does that leave us for the 2025 season? It leaves us with a lot of doubt, though Djokovic cut his 2024 season short with a clear intent. He wanted to rest up and recharge his batteries. If that proved successful, we might see a reinvigorated Djokovic in 2025, though there are major obstacles that remain. It’s Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner, players who he hasn’t been able to beat consistently for a while now.

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Can Djokovic compete with Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner?

This is the million-dollar question because ultimately these are the players he will need to beat if he wants to win Grand Slams. That’s the only goal he cares about, as per his own words, so can he actually do it?

Alcaraz seems to be the player that he has an easier time with. It’s partly due to his own inconsistencies because while Sinner plays like a robot, Alcaraz is much more up and down. That allows Djokovic to get the better of him like he did at the Olympics. Alcaraz wasn’t at his best that day and Djokovic used that to his advantage.

It’s much tougher with Sinner, who in fairness was pretty unbeatable in 2024. If he regresses to the mean a little bit, Djokovic might have a better chance, though it will still be tough.

The bottom line is that he’s struggled against both quite a bit lately. He’s lost three in a row against Sinner, and neither of those matches was particularly close. He did a lot better against Alcaraz, winning 3 of the last 4 they played, but that’s mostly due to Alcaraz’s own demons.

The conclusion of it all is that the Serbian can still compete with both Sinner and Alcaraz. The Italian is a tougher matchup for him, but he can beat him if he plays his best. The question remains whether he can actually find his best tennis when he needs it because it will get tougher and tougher with time.

He’s not getting any younger and even his strength, being able to win a best of five, won’t be a huge strength anymore. Regression has begun and it’s not likely to stop anytime soon, which means that 2025 might well end up being the last year for Novak Djokovic, not because he wants to, but because he simply won’t be able to remain competitive enough to justify playing on.

After all, he’s not after finals. He’s after trophies and after going trophy-less in 2024, the new season doesn’t promise that many either.