A devastating confession was made by Novak Djokovic during his appearance on Nick Kyrgios’ podcast. The top-ranked player in the world gave an explanation for his “hurting” while on the tennis circuit, which seemed to account for his unusual season. This year, Djokovic has participated in just five competitions and hasn’t even reached the championship round.
As the 24-time Grand Slam champion was the most recent visitor on Kyrgios’ Good Trouble podcast, Djokovic and Kyrgios rekindled their friendship. Even though the segment was filmed during the Australian Open in January, it provided some insight into some of Djokovic’s current off-court challenges.
By his own standards, the 36-year-old’s season has been unusual thus far, with him drastically cutting back on his workload and experiencing several unexpected early exits. Djokovic has also chosen to withdraw from a number of tournaments, which may indicate that he is conflicted over whether to pursue his career or spend more time with his family.
“The four-year-old Novak, who began playing tennis in Kopaonik, Serbia, is still inside, still enamored with the game, and still bursting at the seams for more. Right?” Kyrgios heard the world No. 1 tell him.
However, there’s also likely this older Novak, who is a spouse and father, who is like, ‘Come on, dude. Life consists of other things as well. Together with his wife Jelena, Djokovic has two children: Tara, age six, and Stefan, age nine.
And having spent the first two events of the season in Australia, he was already finding it difficult to be apart from them. “I really miss my children as we speak,” he continued. It has been weeks since I last saw them, and they are back in Europe.
“I might not see them for another two or three weeks if I perform well here. And leaving them is hurting me more and more. That Djokovic missed two tournaments this year for to personal issues is therefore not surprising.
In March, the Serbian player tweeted, “At this stage of my career, I’m balancing my private and professional schedule,” announcing his withdrawal from the Miami Open. He also pulled out of the Madrid Open last month for “non-medical reasons,” probably in an effort to balance his career on the tennis circuit with his family.
His performance in competitions has fallen short of his often lofty expectations. For the first time since 2018, Djokovic lost in Australia to begin the year. He was defeated by Jannik Sinner in the Australian Open semifinal and by Alex De Minaur in the United Cup.
After that, he made his first participation at Indian Wells in five years, but in his second match, fortunate loser and then-world No. 123 Luca Nardi shocked him. Djokovic made it to the semifinals of the Monte-Carlo Masters, where he was defeated by Casper Ruud, marking his best performance since 2015.
But Djokovic’s performance at the Italian Open was even more disorganized as he lost his second match, 6-2 6-3, to Alejandro Tabilo. It is now anticipated that he won’t play till defending his French Open title.
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