"He is still the best in the world": Novak Djokovic can still win big, asserts Goran Ivanisevic

Famous tennis coach Goran Ivanisevic believes that Serbia’s Novak Djokovic can still compete with the likes of Italy’s Jannik Sinner and Spain’s Carlos Alcaraz for big titles. The 37-year-old is often regarded as the greatest player in the history of men’s tennis in the Open era, having won as many as 24 Grand Slam titles.

One-time Grand Slam winner Ivanisevic recently spoke to The Tennis Majors, where he discussed Djokovic in detail. The 53-year-old has a lot of experience working with the Belgrade-born player, as the two worked together for six years. Ivanisevic believed that the former world number one remains very capable of winning major events or, at the very least, competing with the likes of the world number one, Italy’s Jannik Sinner and Spain’s young tennis sensation Carlos Alcaraz.

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However, Ivanisevic, who has recently started working with the women’s world number five Elena Rybakina, was of the opinion that one of the big reasons which can determine whether Djokovic can compete against the two best players in the world is his ‘motivation’ level.

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“I can’t know if he is motivated and how much, but the moment he decides to play, it means that he is eager to play,” he said. “Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz are convincingly above the rest of the field, but I put Novak in the group with them, because when Novak really wants to play, he is still the best in the world, in my opinion. The other thing is how much he wants to play and when – we saw at the Olympics… If he goes out on the court like that, then he can still win a Slam. Also, it depends on his ranking and the draw, when does he need to face Sinner or Alcaraz, lots of factors, but can Novak do it? Yes, he can. You can never write him off, I would never do that.”