"He could probably play until he's 55": Novak Djokovic's Australian Open loss doesn't raise alarm bells for Tim Henman and Laura Robson

With the announcement of Sky Sports' channel and coverage team, Tim Henman and Laura Robson were on press duty and one of the main talking points for the former professionals regarded Novak Djokovic and both aren't worried about him bouncing back.

Djokovic was dumped out of the Australian Open by Jannik Sinner and this led to conjecture that he was finished and isn't the player he was despite him not losing in Melbourne since 2018 and winning all but one major in 2023 as well as still being the imperious World No.1. Henman admits that there was bound to be questioning but that there isn't any alarm bells going off for him.

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“Look I think when you set the bar that high, there’s almost only one way to go,” Henman said to Express Sport.
"And so by his own admissions in the semis of the Australian Open, it’s probably one of his worst matches in a Grand Slam for probably a decade. But when you’ve won that Slam 10 times and you talk about playing 100 matches there, I guess it’s human nature that you’re going to play poorly at some stage. So I don’t think there’s any alarm bells for me. He’s still the favourite in any tournament he enters right now.”

Laura Robson also wasn't worried with the former British tennis star now turned pundit and commentator mainly for Eurosport saying that he could play until he's around 55 and that he might just need a break for a bit to recoup before he is then back to his best.

“I wasn’t surprised by the loss, I think I was more surprised at how he played that day against Sinner," said Robson.
"Because everyone thought that there was a definite chance that Jannik was going to come through that so it was amazing to see him live up to the expectation. For Novak it was just those first two sets where he was so flat that you never really see that from him, or if he is flat that he’s still able to turn the match around. And by the time it looked like he started going full on again in the match it was too late.”
"So I feel like he’s maybe just another one who needs a bit of a break at the moment before he heads off to Indian Wells, Miami because he’s the best player on a hard court ever so those two tournaments are always going to do well for him
"When he was having a slightly off day, people weren’t able to take advantage of it,” she explained. “Whereas now they can but for someone his age he’s moving as well as ever and I wouldn’t be too worried about that. I feel like he’s one of those guys, one of those athletes, he could probably play until he’s 55.”

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Danny 🐊

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Novak Djokovic starts his 412th week as the best player in the world today. That's 7.9 years ranked #1.

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