“You can’t beat it”: Jimmy Connors highlights Novak Djokovic’s biggest challenge ahead of Wimbledon

Novak Djokovic has won it all when it comes to men’s tennis, but now, he is chasing a dream to become the first player ever to win 25 Grand Slam titles. The 38-year-old’s last victory in a major title came nearly two years back in New York, where he lifted the US Open after beating Russia’s Daniil Medvedev in the final in straight sets with a score of 6-3, 7-6, 6-3.

Since then, Djokovic has been waiting to lift an elusive title, but so far, has failed to achieve his milestone. The Belgrade-born player has featured in six Grand Slams but has only managed to qualify once, at Wimbledon last year, where he lost to Carlos Alcaraz in straight sets. This year, Djokovic has featured in both major events, but his journey ended at the semifinal stage on both occasions.

At the Australian Open, Djokovic was forced to retire from the semifinal against Alexander Zverev due to a fitness concern. A few months later, in Paris, Djokovic lost to Sinner in the last-four clash at the French Open in straight sets. Former world number one Jimmy Connors spoke in the recent episode of the Advantage Connors podcast, where he highlighted what is stopping Djokovic from achieving something that no player has achieved in professional tennis since the Open era began.

“His success on all the Grand Slam surfaces has been pretty amazing, let’s face it,” said Connors. “Going in, I am sure he would have loved to have got to the final there and beaten Sinner and had that confidence flowing to his game. But I keep telling you, that getting older and playing against these young kids is no easy task, especially in these three out of five set matches. It’s not the one that you win 6-4 in the fifth or 7-5 in the fourth set. It’s the ones that follow that break you down and wear you out to where you get to the quarter-finals or the semi-finals and that is where you are supposed to be starting to play your best and getting on a roll, not fighting fatigue. It just happens to every athlete. You can’t beat it. Because the athletes, when you get older, your competition is younger and when they come in and want to make their name like Sinner and Alcaraz, they want to use you, the older guy, as their stepping stone. A lot of these guys – to beat Novak and to be able to tell your kids that I beat Djokovic at Wimbledon, that’s big!”