"Novak will still be the man to beat": Thiem assesses Djokovic's chances of achieving calendar slam

Novak Djokovic looked pretty unstoppable at the Australian Open with some like Mats Wilander suggesting that a calendar grand slam is in play for him and Thiem agrees.

As Thiem struggles to pick up wins so does Djokovic keep dominating. It's an interesting time for Thiem in his career as he looks like a player who is Djokovic's age might have been expected to look like but he keeps fighting. Until he finds form, Thiem observed the happenings on the Tour, especially Djokovic's dominance.

Talking about that, Thiem said:

“I have the feeling that there are many players now who can beat those two guys [Djokovic and Nadal]- There are great guys there, but obviously, also those two, three when Roger [Federer] was there, they were still one level above all the others, especially in the Slams, especially when it came to the best-of-five."

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He added:

“For the whole tennis world it would be nice to see one last showdown in Roland-Garros, obviously, but Novak will still be the man to beat in the Grand Slams in 2023. The only tournament is Roland-Garros: if Rafael is fit there, it's exactly the opposite. He's the man to beat, obviously, when he won the tournament 14 times, it's crazy. But if you see the performance of Novak at the Australian Open, which was incredible, he's going to be probably the favourite at Wimbledon and the US Open as well.”

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