Former
tennis player Barbara Schett commented on
Novak Djokovic's chances of achieving
another Grand Slam.
Despite
winning two Grand Slam titles this year, Djokovic enters
Wimbledon as the
second seed, where he aims to capture his 24th Grand Slam, extending his lead
over Rafael Nadal, who has 22 titles, and potentially equaling the all-time
record set by Margaret Court of 24 Grand Slam titles for both men and women.
Djokovic
has not lost a match at Wimbledon since 2017 and has claimed victory in the
last four editions of the tournament. According to commentator Barbara Schett,
'Nole' is the clear favorite.
“I have to
say, looking at the way Novak has been playing this year, looking at the way
Novak has been playing in Wimbledon in the past, he's going in as the heavy
favourite, even though he's not going to be top seed,” Schett began.
“He's just
such a complete player on that surface, he moves the best on grass. I think
he's the most solid player in terms of consistency and there's no weaknesses at
all, even more so than any other surfaces.”
The
commentator believes that Djokovic has grown mentally since winning the
Australian Open, French Open, and Wimbledon in 2021. However, she acknowledges
that he fell short of completing the Calendar Slam as he lost in the final of
the US Open to Medvedev:
“And I
mean, we've seen it in a few years ago when he was going for the Calendar Slam
at the US Open against Daniil Medvedev. He fell apart mentally because it was
just all too much for him. The expectations,” she added
“Now he has
grown so much, a lot has happened. We had the whole Covid years where he had
and faced several issues. I think he's stronger than ever not just tennis wise,
but also mentally.”
“So, I
think he is very keen to win the 24th Grand Slam title and I think he will do
it because he's overall just the best player playing at the moment,” claimed
Schett.
Schett
expressed her opinion that Djokovic is the overwhelming favorite and believes
that it is highly unlikely to see a defeat of the world No. 2 in the remaining
Grand Slam tournaments this year:
“All he
wants is to break every single record that there is out there. And he should,
you know, and he looks for his age extremely fresh and keen.
“And I
think the last couple of years where sometimes he was restricted to play and
couldn't play, that was actually a positive thing for him because now he's so
fresh and he's so keen and so eager.
“I think
he's extremely close. I mean, he's halfway through already. To be honest, I
can't see anybody beating him in Wimbledon unless he would get injured or
something like that. But we don't want that to happen, obviously.
“But tennis
wise, I don't see it. And then it'll be interesting to see how he will handle
the pressure at the US Open once again because he will definitely look back and
what happened a few years ago when he reached the final against Daniil. I
remember there were tears in the middle of the match where he just realised
himself, ‘this is all too much for me’, she concluded.