Novak Djokovic explains what he is doing to prepare for 2025 and challenge Jannik sinner and Carlos Alcaraz.
In 2024 the Serbian found himself in a position of being inferior to two of his biggest rivals for some time.
Despite Djokovic beating Alcaraz to win the Olympic gold medal, he lost to the Spaniard in the finals of the Wimbledon Championships for the second successive year and lost both of his meetings against Sinner.
Heading into next season, Djokovic is keen to make an impression and defeat himself as a dominant force in the men’s game.
What did Novak Djokovic say about Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz heading into 2025?
Novak Djokovic spent the vast majority of his career battling Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal at the top of the game.
Now the pair have both retired and as he enters his twilight years, Alcaraz and Sinner have emerged as the current frontrunners on the ATP Tour.
Djokovic has some work to do to catch up to them in 2025, but the 24-time Grand Slam champion is more than up for the challenge.
“I’m looking forward to it. I’m feeling inspired again to go out on the courts and motivated. I’m doing my best to prepare myself in the best possible way,” he told Bein Sports.
“I have more time than usual, we have kind of a very short offseason but this time I ended my season quite early so I had time to rest and recover.
“I’m in the training process and padel gets me going. I’m looking forward to the competition, I feel like I can still go strong with young guys.
“Obviously Sinner and Alcaraz are leading the way but I feel like when I’m prepared, when I’m at the top of my game I can challenge them and I look forward to seeing how far I can go next year, it should be exciting. Obviously always prioritise the Slams, and we’ll see how it goes.”
Novak Djokovic made changes to his coaching team ahead of an important 2025 season
Djokovic made it clear that he wants to start winning Grand Slam titles again by adding his former rival Andy Murray to his coaching team.
The former World number one appointed Murray as his coach in the hope his former rival would give him an edge at the start of the 2025 season.
Their partnership is set to last until at least the end of the Australian Open, a title Djokovic will look to regain after losing to Sinner in the 2024 semi-finals.
“I was thinking about different people and then the Andy Murray discussion appeared on the table with me and my team,” Djokovic told Sky Sports.
“I was like I am going to give him a call and see how it goes. It caught him a bit off guard as well because he wasn’t expecting it.
“We connected really fast and he accepted after a few days. I couldn’t be more excited about it. This collaboration is a surprise to me as well, to everyone, but it’s exciting for tennis.
“He has been one of my greatest rivals, the same age, we have played on all the biggest stadiums in our sport so I can’t wait to get out on the court and prepare for next season.”
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