Novak Djokovic 'doesn't really care' about losing smaller tournaments claims Mats Wilander

Former world number one Mats Wilander believes that Serbia’s legendary tennis star Novak Djokovic is not scared to lose smaller tournaments.

The 36-year-old had a difficult start to the 2024 campaign where he has already suffered three defeats. His most recent defeat came while playing in the Indian Wells where he was knocked out of the competition after losing to Italy’s Luca Nardi in the round of 32 with a score of 6-4, 3-6, 6-3.

After that, Djokovic announced that he would not take part in the ongoing ATP 1000 event — the Miami Open. Wilander was recently quoted in a report where he expressed his opinion that the 24-time Grand Slam winner is definitely not scared of playing in smaller competitions.

"Novak Djokovic doesn't really care when he loses in the smaller tournaments,” he said. "I mean, he would like to win every tournament, he'd like to win every match. But I do think that sometimes these days he goes on a trip just to test himself.

"But right now, in terms of competition, it is a little bit of an off-season. It would be great to win the Sunshine Double again for Novak Djokovic, but he's not even playing in Miami.

"So basically, it's a [case of] getting a couple of matches, understand that he's very close, ‘I'm going to go home, I'm going to practice again and then I'll be ready for the next match’.

“But I'm not worried. I was always worried about Novak winning too much and I think the last few years he hasn't won too much on tour, which is why he's winning so many Grand Slam tournaments because he's fresh. I don't think it matters.

"This surface again is not perfect for Novak with the slow bounce, the high bounce; I think that he prefers a faster court.

"So I think he goes and realises that Luca Nardi is another young Italian who's really good. There's a lot of good players out there who aren’t worried about Novak in terms of the physical part, unless it's three out of five sets and then they become worried. Novak knows all this. I wouldn't worry and I'm sure he's not worried either."