Novak Djokovic has cited Cristiano Ronaldo, LeBron James and Tom Brady as reasons why he plans to continue prolonging his retirement from tennis. Djokovic, 38, remains one of the top players in the world but has not won a Grand Slam since the 2024 US Open, with Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner usurping the Serbian star.
Djokovic reached the semi-finals of all four Majors this year but fell to either Alcaraz or Sinner on each occasion. He has been a perennial winner throughout his entire career, but has struggled to keep up with the two new stars dominating the landscape.
His inability to claim a record 25th Slam has led many to speculate that Djokovic may call a time on his career sooner rather than later, having carefully trimmed his schedule in recent years.
But ahead of his Six Kings Slam semi-final with Sinner, Djokovic confirmed that he has no intentions to quit tennis anytime soon.
He is proud of being able to compete at such a high level so late in his career and highlighted similarities in other sports as a motivation to carry on playing.
“Longevity is one of my biggest motivations,” Djokovic said at the Joy Forum in Riyadh. “I really want to see how far I can go. If you see across all the global sports, LeBron James he is still going strong, he is 40, Cristiano Ronaldo, Tom Brady played until he was 40-something years old, it is unbelievable.
“They are inspiring me as well, so I want to keep going, that is one of the motivations I have and then I want to also live to see, live meaning keep on playing professionally, what is coming for our sport and I am super excited about it.
“These are things I can’t be openly speaking about at the moment but I feel in the next couple of years, I feel like tennis is a sport that can be greatly transformed and I want to be part of that change, not just part of their change but I want to be playing when we kind of rejuvenate our sport and set the new platform that is going to go on for decades to come.”
Djokovic has a chance to get revenge on Sinner for defeats at Wimbledon and the French Open on Thursday, where the pair will meet once again in the lucrative Six Kings Slam.
Each player receives £1.1million for simply turning up, while the winner will bag a whopping £3.4m on top.
And Djokovic has delivered a clear message to his rivals on the possibility of him retiring: “It is not happening, I am sorry to disappoint them [the younger players].”