"Once you get to a certain age, you don't bounce back" - Rennae Stubbs concerned about Novak Djokovic's fitness moving forward
ATP
As Novak Djokovic approaches the twilight of his career, former tennis pro Rennae Stubbs believes the Serbian superstar may find it more difficult to recover as quickly on the grueling ATP tour.
The former World No.1 was forced to retire during his semifinal bout against Alexander Zverev at the 2025 Australian Open. It was discovered that Djokovic had sustained a hamstring injury, prompting him to take some time off before returning at the Qatar Open the following month.
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Injury risks increase with age, says Stubbs
The 37-year old lost to Matteo Berrettini at the Qatar Open, prompting Stubbs to question if Djokovic's fitness was slowly starting to regress.
"You have to start asking the question – Novak, physically, I know he has had his issues in Australia with the leg, he didn’t look great leaving the Middle East,” she said on the Rennae Stubbs podcast. “He has been struggling with injuries over the last couple of years now, with the knee and the leg and I’m telling you… once you get to a certain age you don’t bounce back. And, yes, Novak has bounced back better than most, better than probably anyone.
"But this is starting to be a bit of an issue now. Not winning matches and then when you haven’t played for a while, then you come back and you’re older.
“I don’t care how much you train and how good you look on the practice court, when you go and play a match, you are pushing yourself more and doing more. You are more nervous, your body is more uptight and he is struggling more and more and more."
"But this is starting to be a bit of an issue now. Not winning matches and then when you haven’t played for a while, then you come back and you’re older.
“I don’t care how much you train and how good you look on the practice court, when you go and play a match, you are pushing yourself more and doing more. You are more nervous, your body is more uptight and he is struggling more and more and more."
The 24-time Grand Slam champion is scheduled to compete at Indian Wells next week.
Growing up in a household where soccer was king, my earliest memories are filled with chants from packed stadiums and the rhythm of a ball being passed across neighborhood streets. But somewhere along the way, the quiet elegance and raw emotion of tennis pulled me in. What began as a curiosity became a lifelong passion; not just for the sport itself, but for the stories it tells: of grit, of heartbreak, of improbable comebacks and human resilience.
As a tennis writer, I bring the observational lens of someone who didn’t grow up in the sport, but fell in love with it as an outsider; a perspective that lets me see both its technical beauty and its emotional depth. Over the years working with TennisUpToDate, I’ve had the privilege of reaching more than 3.5 million readers worldwide, with one of my features ranking among the site’s top three articles.
With a background in storytelling and a creative mind always searching for meaning beyond the scoreboard, I aim to craft narratives that go deeper than results and rankings. Whether it’s a rising star breaking through or a veteran fighting off Father Time, I try to capture the heartbeat behind the headlines.
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