"The tennis is clearly still there. If he can get his body right" - Novak Djokovic's lack of clay court tennis in 2026 disputed ahead of Roland Garros

Novak Djokovic's Rome Open was short lived. 20-year-old Dino Prizmic has spent his entire life idolising his 38-year-old counterpart, and took the opportunity to defeat him on court with open arms. He continues his fine clay swing with a 2-6, 6-2, 6-4 triumph with Tracy Austin and Jim Courier questioning the process Djokovic is going through ahead of Roland Garros.

After a solid first set showing, Djokovic could not keep the levels up. Out of tennis from the Miami Open with a shoulder injury, he has not featured much this year. Aside from the Australian Open where he reached the final, just a fourth round appearance at Indian Wells is all the tennis under his belt ahead of Rome.

With just one competitive match on clay in 2026, the odds are heavily stacked against him going to Paris.

Austin was bemused to why Djokovic was not set to play anymore tennis before he begins the quest for Grand Slam number 25. He competed in the Geneva Open last year where he sealed his 100th ATP Tour title but his appearances on court since have been sparse at best.

"I was kind of surprised," she said on the Tennis Channel. "Obviously, Novak knows what’s best for him, and we’re never going to doubt his judgement. But I was surprised he gave such a definitive answer so quickly after losing a match like this.

"Last year he played Geneva and won the title. This year he’s only played around 10 or 12 matches, and this was just his third tournament overall. Going into a Grand Slam, where it’s best-of-five sets, I would have thought he’d want a few more matches before Paris. So that surprised me. Maybe there’s something physical going on — we just don’t know."

Courier came in with a theory. "I think Novak has so much trust in himself and so much experience at this point that a lot of the things you or I might have worried about in our careers probably don’t apply to him anymore."

Austin responded by questioning why he played in Geneva last year. "It’s probably just a feeling," Courier answered. "He knows he played great tennis in Australia this year without much match play beforehand. He reached the final there playing incredible tennis, so maybe he’s leaning on that experience. Only he knows — we’re just guessing.

"He hasn’t played much since Indian Wells, where he lost to Jack Draper in a very high-level match. The tennis is clearly still there. If he can get his body right — and obviously his stomach wasn’t right today — then maybe the priority is simply protecting his body."

He gave his thoughts on what he would advise Djokovic to do if he was on his team. "If I were on his team, I’d probably be thinking that the first couple of rounds in Paris give him enough time to play himself into form. In theory, he should get a couple of manageable matches early on unless he runs into a dangerous floater with a huge serve. He actually looked great today in the first set until he got sick and lost his energy."

While the overall headlines will be about the six-time champion crashing out at the first hurdle, Austin was quick to give the Croatian his deserved praise. "Credit to Dino Prizmic for staying aggressive. Can you imagine idolising Novak Djokovic your whole life, then suddenly having him on the ropes? Novak is 38, and there’s a good chance this was the only time they’ll ever play each other. To get that win and be able to say you beat Novak Djokovic for the rest of your life — that’s a now-or-never moment. For Prizmic to serve it out and stay composed at the end was really impressive."

Courier agreed. "That’s such a great point, Tracy. Odds are they won’t play each other again, and Prizmic took advantage of the opportunity," he stated.

"A lot of players in that situation would get tentative and start waiting for the match to end. We’ve seen that happen many times. You can’t do that against someone like Novak. If he’s physically struggling, you have to keep pressing, keep making him move, and make things as difficult as possible. You almost have to be a little cruel to be kind to yourself in this sport. If you get any edge against players like Djokovic or Carlos Alcaraz, you have to take it."