Tennis ace Taylor Fritz has urged rival Novak Djokovic to continue playing and ditch any thoughts about retiring from the sport. Djokovic has gone two years without winning a Grand Slam, ATP 1000 or ATP 500 tournament, with suggestions that his body is beginning to give up on him.
Djokovic came close at the recent Shanghai Masters, with the Serb becoming the oldest player to qualify for a Masters 1000 final. However, hopes of securing the win were dashed by Valentin Vacherot, whose fairytale week in Shanghai took him all the way to the title.
The 24-time Grand Slam winner has a quick turnaround, as he’s set to compete at the lucrative Six Kings Slam in Saudi Arabia. He’s been given a bye into the second round, with an overall prize of £4.5million on offer to the winner.
There has been chatter that 2025 might represent Djokovic’s last full year on tour, but Fritz has sent a plea to the tennis icon, asking him to keep going. Speaking at the exhibition event in the Middle East, he explained: “He hasn’t really shown too many signs of slowing down. He obviously has had a great year, semis at every Grand Slam.
“It’s tough to even think about him retiring or being done soon when he is producing the level he is producing.”
Fritz has enjoyed a strong year himself, winning two titles throughout 2025 so far and is among those fighting for the bumper prize in Saudi Arabia. The event has garnered plenty of criticism, but Fritz is among those defending the quirky tournament.
He added: “I think this is a great event. Like the Laver Cup, when you have the best players in the world playing against each other, it’s great. The unfortunate thing is the schedule is already extremely packed as it is. So you have to choose between these things that are very enjoyable to do and load it on to how packed the tour already is. That’s the tough part.
“It’s going to be live on Netflix, so you are going to get the tennis fans and hopefully a bit of a different audience as well. It’s been amazing since I’ve been here. Just coming out of the airport last night was crazy. We are getting treated very, very nicely.”
The tournament gets underway on Wednesday and will run through until Saturday. Alongside Djokovic and Fritz, Carlos Alcaraz, Jannik Sinner, Alexander Zverev and Stefanos Tsitsipas will also be involved.