"I don't believe he will come, he is in Spain with his family": Viktor Troicki says Novak Djokovic likely to miss next Davis Cup tie

Novak Djokovic anchored Serbia albeit in a losing effort to Jannik Sinner's Italy at the Davis Cup Finals, but it seems he will not be playing their forthcoming tie with Slovakia in qualifying according to team captain, Viktor Troicki.

Troicki admitted that Djokovic is now on holiday after his disappointment at the Australian Open where he lost to Jannik Sinner despite murmurings that he wasn't 100% anyway. But he won't be back in action for a little while at least it seems heading towards his return at Indian Wells and Miami after having to miss the last few years due to COVID restrictions. Well known for discerning warm-ups and general tournaments, Djokovic though has ordinarily played for his country including at the United Cup in January.

“I don't believe he will come, he is in Spain with his family," said Troicki to Sportal. He also discussed the defeat to Italy and said it still hurts. “It's not the distant past, unfortunately. It hurt a lot and it still hurts, we all know how close we were, but... That's what happened to the best player of all time...”

But he doesn't believe that the loss to Sinner in Malaga played a part in Australia. “I don't believe it's that much for him... Sinner was freer in that match in Australia because he won it the last time in Malaga and he pulled off that duel incredibly. I should say, he was more relieved. But Nole was not, let's say, convincing from the beginning of the tournament, somehow we haven't seen his sharpness since the start of the season. I think he can do much better than that and he himself is aware of it. Of course, he is a man and not a machine, we cannot always expect him to win every Grand Slam.…”