They are close, but they are far - the journey of new tennis stars towards Novak Djokovic's greatness

ATP
Sunday, 17 December 2023 at 11:30
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Ex-coach of the former world number one Serena Williams believes younger players are getting closer to competing with Serbia’s Novak Djokovic but are still not there yet.

The 36-year-old is regarded as the greatest player in the history of men’s singles tennis in the Open era, having won as many as 24 Grand Slam titles. Djokovic had a fabulous season in 2023 where he ended up winning three out of four Grand Slam titles.

Those victories came as a little surprising considering many predicted the Belgrade-born to struggle against the young rising stars like Spain’s Carlos Alcaraz, Italy’s Jannik Sinner and Denmark’s Holger Rune.

Serenas’ ex-coach Patrick Mouratoglou was recently quoted in a report where he stated that younger players are getting closer to competing with the current world number one but they still have some distance to cover.

“They are close, but they are far,” he said. “They are close in terms of level. Carlos Alcaraz beat Novak Djokovic in the final of Wimbledon, Holger Rune beat him two times, one time last year and one time this year.

“So the level is really good. The level of tennis is very close to his. Now what makes the difference is still his ability to compete and his mental strength, that puts him still in a way, way above. Because if you look at his season, he won three Grand Slams and reached the final at the other.”

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