Former British player Laura Robson believes that losing early in the Qatar Open is not a disaster for Novak Djokovic. The 37-year-old is regarded as one of the greatest players in the history of men’s tennis in the singles category in the Open era, having won as many as 24 Grand Slam titles.
Djokovic has recently played in the Qatar Open, where he lost in the first round to Italy’s Matteo Berrettini in straight sets with a score of 7-6, 6-2. It was the first outing for the Belgrade-born star, who was forced to retire from the semifinal of the Australian Open because of an injury he suffered in the quarterfinal against Spain’s Carlos Alcaraz.
Former British tennis player Robson was recently quoted in a report by Tennis 365, where she highlighted that losing in the first round in Doha was not a disaster for Djokovic. Robson believes the biggest positive for the 24-time Grand Slam winner was not feeling any discomfort while playing.
“I think that’s the main positive for Novak, the fact that he’s feeling healthy on the court, again,” she said. “The way that he finished in Australia. I’m sure it would have been tough for him to reset because he was playing some of his best tennis against Alcaraz, and then a couple of days later, it doesn’t go his way. So just at his age, to be able to rebound as quickly as he has, I think is a huge positive sign. I don’t know that he is overly bothered about losing early in Doha when you consider all the tournaments that he’s won and all his accolades in his career. I don’t know that he’ll take much time to get over this one. So I imagine he’s spoken about it in the past, that he really wants to focus on the fact that he wants to get to 25, and that’s the big goal for this year rather than a small ATP event in the Middle East.”