‘You can’t write Novak out’: Kokkinakis hails Djokovic’s resilience

Australia’s Thanasi Kokkinakis believes a player like the former world number one Serbia’s Novak Djokovic cannot be written off ahead of the 2025 season. The 37-year-old is regarded as the greatest player in the history of men’s tennis in the singles category having won as many as 24 Grand Slam titles.

Djokovic has had a rather below-par season according to his own high standards. The Belgrade-born star, for the first time in seven years, finished a full season without winning a single Grand Slam. That’s not it, as Djokovic also failed to win any ATP event in the year. His best performance in a major event this year came at Wimbledon, where he lost to Spain’s Carlos Alcaraz in the final in straight sets with a score of 6-2, 6-2, 7-6.

Djokovic’s only major success in 2024 came at the Paris Olympics where he won a gold medal for his country. He got the better of Spain’s Alcaraz in the final in straight sets with a score of 7-6, 7-6. Despite those triumphs, those performances led Djokovic to change his coaching staff as he hired the former world number one Andy Murray as his coach for the upcoming 2025 season.

Australia’s Kokkinakis has been recently quoted in a Tennis 365 report where he refused to write off Djokovic ahead of the first Grand Slam of 2025. The 28-year-old was of the opinion that the reigning world number one Jannik Sinner and Spain’s Alcaraz will start the season as favourites for every major event, but a player of Djokovic can never be written off.

“Sinner and Alcaraz are the favourites, with Djokovic just behind them,” he stated. “Zverev is playing some great tennis, but you would say those Sinner, Alcaraz and Novak are just ahead of him. You can’t write Novak out. It looked like he was taking a bit of a decline and then he goes out and play like that and win the Olympic gold. That shows you can never write him out.”