Novak Djokovic will turn 40 next May, has missed out on the ATP Finals and has not won a Grand Slam title since the 2023 US Open. Jim Courier and Greg Rusedski have now given their views of what comes next, and they do not quite agree on what the question is.
On the latest edition of the Off Court with Greg Rusedski podcast, released on Monday, Jim Courier said he has stopped trying to predict Djokovic. “I don’t know what to believe with Novak anymore, honestly,” he said, in comments reported by Tennis365.
Courier: the end is Djokovic’s to choose
Courier’s argument is that Djokovic’s motivation is hard for anyone to read. “My biggest question is where does he want to end his career?” he asked. He noted that Djokovic has said publicly many times that the Olympics is where he wants to finish, and then added a practical caveat: “He’ll need luck to stay healthy to get there”. Because the next Olympics are in 2028, that leaves the Serb a long runway.
Courier also expressed some astonishment at the mileage. “I’m just astonished that he still wants to keep pushing himself after all this time, and especially because of where his kids are in their lives.” He spoke from personal experience: “I have kids that are of a very similar age to his and it’s painful to be away from them.” His conclusion was close to a shrug: “It’s hard to really put yourself into Novak’s brain, and understand what drives him, right? He’s just a different kind of cat.”
Rusedski: it comes down to luck
Rusedski’s focus was narrower and more competitive. “Things have to line up for him to get that number 25,” he said. “He needs a little bit of luck for that to happen with these guys, you know, getting injured with Alcaraz and Sinner.”
That is a pointed way of saying that the odds against Djokovic depend less on his own level than on what happens to the two players who have dominated the sport. Alongside that he was emphatic about the man himself: “The guy’s an absolute legend. To me, he’s the greatest of all time.”
Where they agree and where they differ
Both men treat Djokovic as an exception to normal career curves, and neither suggests he should stop. The difference is the frame. Courier looks at the person, his body and his family, and says the decision will have to come from him. Rusedski looks at the draw, and says the result will probably be decided by whether the leading pair are fit.
The context makes both views easy to understand. Djokovic reached the Australian Open final this year and the semi-finals at Wimbledon, so the result is not an old man’s decline so much as a refusal to be decided by the calendar. Even so, he has struggled to get through tournaments without injuries, and his exit in Paris, to a qualifier ranked 83rd, ended his hopes of qualifying for Turin. We looked at the other side of the Paris defeat in Harrison’s view that Djokovic “didn’t really play poorly”.
The real disagreement is whether Djokovic’s remaining value is a question of competitive probability or of personal choice. Courier suggests the second, Rusedski the first, and the honest answer is probably both. What neither can offer is a date.
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