Will Novak Djokovic end his 2024 season without winning a title?

Novak Djokovic's loss to Carlos Alcaraz in the 2024 Wimbledon Championships final on Sunday, July 14, has confirmed his longest title drought in a calendar year since 2006. He secured his career's first trophy by winning the Dutch Open in Amersfoort on July 23, 2006.

With the next tournaments where Djokovic can potentially compete at before the Paris Olympics being the ATP 250 events on the claycourts of Umag and Kitzbuhel scheduled to begin on Monday, July 22, he's destined to record the worst seven months in a season since 2006.

To put the timeline into perspective, he hadn't registered the first of his 30 and 27 wins over Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer, respectively, and the country column in his passport read 'Serbia and Montenegro' when he took his first tour-level silverware home.

Since then, the 37-year-old has amassed 97 more titles, including 24 Grand Slams and seven Year-end Championships, and 428 weeks as the top-ranked player on the men's singles circuit.

Interestingly, he added four trophies to his collection in 2023: three at the Grand Slams and one at the ATP Finals. Therefore, to see his title tally stuck at zero for 2024 has been a bit of a shock for tennis fans.

Djokovic began the 2024 season by representing Serbia at the 2024 United Cup in Australia. He failed to take his side any further than the quarterfinals, with his 6-4, 6-4 loss to Alex de Minaur of the host nation contributing to Serbia's exit. This was notably his first failure against de Minaur.

He then traveled to the Australian Open and made a deep run, fighting illness and fatigue in the early rounds. He defeated 12th seed Taylor Fritz in the quarterfinals to book a place in the semifinals of the Melbourne Major for the 11th time in his career.

He had been invincible in the semifinals there before this year, yet he wasn't confident about his chances. At being reminded of his impeccable record by Eurosport's Barbara Schett, the 24-time Grand Slam champion replied:

"Let's be humble a little bit, of course, confidence is there but, the matches are only going to get tougher."

It was understandable for Djokovic to not get ahead of things as he was pitted against Jannik Sinner for a spot in the final. In an interview a few months earlier with Eurosport at the 2023 ATP Finals, Djokovic had, however, predicted his seventh triumph with great authority and eventually defeated Sinner to prove himself right.

"If I don't want to be humble and be honest, I'm winning the tournament. If I want to be humble, I'm also winning the tournament," he said.

The change in mentality at this year's Australian Open was therefore quite surprising. This perhaps reflected in the outcome as Djokovic couldn't create a single break point on Sinner's serve and ended up on the receiving end of a 6-1, 6-2, 6-7(6), 6-3 scoreline, meaning his streak of dominance in the semifinals at Melbourne Park was over.

He then decided to forgo the Middle East hardcourt swing and landed in California, USA, to vie for the Indian Wells Masters trophy as the first seed. His stay in the desert concluded with a shocking loss against lucky loser Luca Nardi, losing 6-4, 3-6, 6-3 in the third round. He had defeated Australia's Aleksander Vukic in his opener.

The World No. 2 then opted out of the Miami Open and chose the Monte-Carlo Open as his first clay endeavor of 2024. He showed promise in the draw by collecting straight-set wins over the likes of Roman Safiullin, Lorenzo Musetti, and 11th seed Alex de Minaur to reach the semifinals, where he met Casper Ruud, who was seeded eighth.

Djokovic and Ruud had played five times before their Monte-Carlo meeting and the former was undefeated. However, history didn't repeat itself as Ruud came out on top for the first time against the Serb, winning 6-4, 1-6, 6-4.

A few weeks later, the Italian Open saw Djokovic getting shown through the door by Chile's Alejandro Tabilo. The Chilean seemingly didn't break a sweat as his opponent double-faulted five times to lose 6-2, 6-3.

He then took the tennis world by surprise and entered the Geneva Open main draw, perhaps feeling short of practice on clay before the big one at Roland Garros. He registered wins over Yannick Hanfmann and Tallon Griekspoor in straight sets before being beaten 6-4, 0-6, 6-1 by unseeded Tomas Machac in the semifinals.

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"Biggest problem with Novak Djokovic is that there are days when he wakes up with his motivation intact, and there are days when he wants to be with his wife, his children" - Marion Bartoli

Novak Djokovic with his son Stefan. (Getty)

Novak Djokovic was in Paris a couple of days after the loss in Geneva, and began his 2024 French Open with a convincing win over Pierre-Herbert Hugues in the opening round.

Before the defending champion stepped onto Court Philippe Chatrier for his second match against Roberto Carballes Baena, former Wimbledon ladies champion Marion Bartoli made some surprising revelations about the Serb's inner struggle of leaving his family behind to travel on tour.

"I was lucky enough to have a discussion with one of his staff members. The biggest problem they have to deal with Novak at the moment is that there are days when he wakes up with his motivation intact, and there are days when he wants to be with his wife, his children, to take them to school, to lead a normal life," Bartoli said. (as quoted by We Love Tennis)

"He oscillates between these two emotions and that's why sometimes he's completely absent from the court. I was talking to one of his coaches who told me that the match in Rome, he didn't want to play while in training, he was very good," she added.

Bartoli's disclosure perhaps explained the Serb's poor show to some extent, as apparently, he had been running out of motivation to win consistently while being away from his loved ones.

Nevertheless, he won against Carballes Baena in the second round convincingly only hours after Bartoli's statements went public. In the third round, he faced a stern challenge from Lorenzo Musetti, seeded 30, but succeeded in a brutal five-setter.

He found himself in trouble again when he injured his right knee while facing 23rd seed Francisco Cerundolo in the fourth round. He played through the pain and suffering to come good in another match that went to the fifth set.

It seemed like Djokovic had found his mojo but his campaign at the Paris Major ended abruptly as a meniscus tear was diagnosed in the injured knee. Thus, he pulled out, giving Casper Ruud a bye in the quarterfinals, and went under the knife immediately, before beginning his Wimbledon preparations.

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No Top 10 win in 2024: Novak Djokovic wasn't ready for Carlos Alcaraz in Wimbledon final

Novak Djokovic in action at Wimbledon. (Getty)

In what seems nothing less than a miracle, Novak Djokovic recovered for the 2024 Wimbledon Championships and entered the main draw seeded second. He opened his bid for an eighth Championships victory on Centre Court with a straight-set win over Vit Kopriva and went past Jacob Fearnley, Alexei Popyrin, and 15th seed Holger Rune in the second, third, and fourth rounds.

His quarterfinal opponent Alex de Minaur withdrew from the match-up due to a hip injury. Therefore, the Serb entered the semifinals to battle with Lorenzo Musetti. He outdid the 25th seed Musetti in three sets to set up a rematch of the previous year's final with defending champion Carlos Alcaraz.

Djokovic and Alcaraz's 2023 summit clash had extended to five sets but the former looked in no position to take the battle that far this time. He failed to hold his serve in the first game as Alcaraz gained early momentum.

As the match progressed, it became clear that even though he was in the final, his level of tennis was no match to Alcaraz's. He showed up against the Spaniard with no Top 10 wins in the past seven months in his name.

His game seemed all over the place, as he rushed to the net trying to shorten the rallies against his young opponent. The tactic failed as Djokovic was able to win only 51 percent (27/53) of his net points. Alcaraz overpowered and outsmarted the Serb to hand him a 6-2, 6-2, 7-6(4) loss, only his fifth straight-set loss in a Grand Slam final.

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Prospects of winning a title in the remainder of 2024

Novak Djokovic (Getty)

During the press conference following the loss to Carlos Alcaraz in the Wimbledon final, Novak Djokovic revealed that better peformances at the Paris Olympics and US Open is on his to-do list for the remainder of the 2024 season.

"The Olympic Games and the US Open are the two big goals for the rest of the year for me really. I’m hoping I can be at my best in those tournaments," Djokovic said.

He also admitted to not being able to match the quality that the likes of Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner have been producing on tour this year.

"Being able to reach the final of Wimbledon of course is a great confidence boost but I also feel like in match up today against best player right now in the world other than Jannik, both of them are the best year this year by far. I feel like I’m not at that level," he added.

While it's appreciable of Djokovic to praise the better performers and accept his shortcomings as a sportsman, he also needs to improve his levels of performance. In the last seven months, he has shown signs of self-doubt, perhaps some demotivation (as evidenced by Bartoli's comments), and tactical weakness on the court.

Djokovic may win a few matches wherever he plays next even with the aforementioned demerits in his game but he won't be able to go past the top players towards the business end of the tournaments. Hence, if he fails to get rid of his flaws, he is likely to end his 2024 season without a title.