“Greatest player ever”: Evert believes 25th Slam would be Djokovic’s final act

Chris Evert believes that if Novak Djokovic captures the next US Open, he might decide to 'leave the game.' The Serbian 24-time Grand Slam champion has insisted that he still has the motivation and fuel to play for a few more years, despite not having much left to achieve.

Winning the gold medal at the Olympic Games was the last accomplishment missing from his tennis career. Djokovic has won every Grand Slam at least three times and every Masters 1000 at least twice, in addition to holding the absolute record for weeks as No. 1 with 428, far ahead of second place Roger Federer (310 weeks).

Currently, Djokovic is the male player with the most Grand Slam titles, but he remains tied with Margaret Court, although most of the Australian's titles were won before the Open Era: “I think if he wins the 25th major, I would think he would leave the game. I mean, I don’t know, he would break that tie with Margaret Court. He’s won the Olympics,” Chris Evert said.

“That was such a big goal for him, winning the Olympics. As far as winning the US Open, does the 25th mean as much? Can he get that energy going as much as he got in the Olympics?” she added.

“He’s going to come up against, again, some really tough competition. Can he do it two times in a row, the Olympics and the US Open? I would allow him to retire after that, I would say ‘Okay, you have everybody in the world’s permission to retire (laughter).’

“That would be epic if he could do that. But he’s a driven person. He’s a very driven person beyond anybody that I’ve ever seen. He’s had a lot of ups and downs in his life, in his marriage, in his personal relationships, I think, because of being so driven,” the 18-time Grand Slam champion added. “He also has worked everything out. He’s a communicator and he works things out. He seems to be in the best place he’s been in a long time right now.”

Chris Evert highlighted Djokovic's ability to secure the much-coveted gold medal after an irregular season and evident physical problems that forced him to undergo surgery less than two months prior: “I think it would be like Herculean if he wins this tournament and gets to 25. I mean, I think hands down he would have to be the greatest player ever, male player ever. I think he already is in a lot of people’s minds,” the American said.

“I just think for him even to have won the Olympics, after what he went through with the surgery, with seemingly Alcaraz starting to take over, starting to get his number as he did at Wimbledon, for him to come back and find that resilience and find that level of tennis, that actually we haven’t seen the whole year, because he hasn’t won a tournament the whole year, it was like a fairy tale.

“I wouldn’t have expected it. It was a fairy tale. But you know what? I believe in karma. This guy has worked his butt off his whole life, put up with a lot from the press and from being kind of the bad guy with Federer and Nadal. He deserves it. He deserves it all.”