"If I was in his place, I'd say play me until you kill me": Connors believes Djokovic should lay gauntlet down to younger players to dethrone him

Former world number one Jimmy Connors has backed Serbia’s Novak Djokovic to continue playing and challenging the younger generation despite recent setbacks.

The 36-year-old suffered a defeat in the final of Wimbledon 2023 to Spain’s Carlos Alcaraz in a five-set thriller with a score of 1–6, 7–6(8–6), 6–1, 3–6, 6–4.

After that results, the conversation has already begun within the tennis community about the change of guard as Djokovic is now in the twilight of his career, playing a majority of it while competing with the likes of Spain’s Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer.

However, Connors, who won eight Grand Slams in his career, including the five US Open titles, believes that the Serbian tennis star should continue and keep challenging the youngsters.

“Somebody put up a picture, I saw on Twitter, Djokovic, where he was 40 or 50 years old, and he is still out there making a speech on Centre Court of Wimbledon. And I loved it,” he said.

“Because, what are you gonna do? Let him play until he is 50? You know, believe me, if that was me, if I was in his place right now, I’d say, play me until you kill me. Because there’s only one guy that’s doing it right now, and that’s Alcaraz.”

The defeat in London was definitely going to be a challenging one for Djokovic as it halted his march — at least for the next 12 months — towards equaling Federer’s record of eight Wimbledon titles.

As things stand, the current world number two is the joint second-most successful player in the history of the competition with seven titles to his name, equal with America’s Pete Sampras.

Despite all of that, Djokovic remains the most successful player in the history of men’s singles tennis in the Open Era after winning 23 Grand Slams.