"He must think he can still win this otherwise he won't": John McEnroe highlights Novak Djokovic's barrier to 25th Grand Slam

Novak Djokovic is chasing a 25th Grand Slam, and for John McEnroe, he sees a major barrier for the 10-time Australian Open champion in the belief that he can complete the feat amid the dominance of the likes of Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz.

McEnroe said that he doesn't think that Djokovic can do it, but whether he thinks that or not is semi-irrelevant, and it chimes very much with the fact that he must think he can still win, which is a tough feat because he doesn't play as much as the other top names in the sport.

Djokovic has always kept a pretty low profile schedule especially in his twilight years. To see the Serbian in a tournament which is not his own now in Greece or outside the Grand Slams or Masters 1000 events is rare.

Even during the Australian Open swing he encountered a bit of a question mark as he had to withdraw from the Adelaide International with injury and although he passed his first test at the Australian Open earlier on Monday pretty comfortably it wasn't exactly one that could be used as a barometer. McEnroe weighed in on his chances of achieving number 25.

“In his heart of hearts and in my opinion, no,” said the former world No 1 to TNT Sports. "I don’t think he can beat both of those guys when he has already had to go through five matches — that’s the problem. That’s the reality he has talked about.

“A lot of people might think, ‘Why are you still going at this point, you haven’t won in a couple of years and you are so used to winning?’ Why not would be the question?

“In my book, he is No 3 in the world. He made four semis last year and beat Alcaraz here. He must think he can still win this otherwise, because he won’t play unless he thinks he can win, which is tougher because he doesn’t play much.”

But while he downplays his chances of achieving 25 outside a special set of circumstances, McEnroe has said that he thinks that his achievement of winning 10 titles at the Happy Slam is downplayed and should be given more attention.

He said that while everyone talks about Rafael Nadal's 14 French Open's, the 10 that Djokovic has achieved especially given that he has often shirked warmups should be discussed a lot more than it is.

“It is mindblowing,” McEnroe said. “We talk about Rafa [Nadal] winning 14 French Opens and you think that doesn’t seem possible, and then you come to Novak and he has won 10 of these. So, you’re like, how does he figure it out each off-season?

“In a lot of cases, he hasn’t played and you are not quite sure where he is at physically or mentally. And he comes down here and does his thing and gets in the head of whoever he is playing and figures it out. It’s amazing.”