Novak Djokovic got the message he needed in chastening Australian Open experience

Kevin Palmer 28 Jan 2026 6:00 PM

Novak Djokovic at the Australian Open

Every great sporting icon has a moment when they realise their time is up and there is a real chance that Novak Djokovic had that moment in his Australian Open quarter-final against Lorenzo Musetti.

Djokovic was on his way out of the tournament that he has won 10 times in Melbourne as Musetti stormed into a two-set lead after comprehensively outplaying the Serbian great.

It extended Djokovic’s winning lead against Musetti to 10-1 in their head-to-head battles and when the battle between these two players is reflected upon, it will be a story of dominance for the 24-time Grand Slam champion.

Yet Djokovic may remember his 11th and possibly final match against Musetti for a very different reason.

While Djokovic has got used to losing against Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner over the last couple of years, defeats against two players who are already considered to be Hall of Fame greats of the game is not a reason that your time at the top is up.

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What was going to push Djokovic over the retirement line was going to be defeats in Grand Slams against players not called Carlos and Jannik and that is what we were about to see in Melbourne against Musetti.

There is no doubt that the Italian has taken his game to the next level over the last year and he deserves to be in the top five on the ATP Rankings, but Djokovic would have been confident of dispatching him in in a best-of-five-set Grand Slam match at any point in his career… until now.

It’s no surprise that a player who will toast his 39th birthday in May is waning in his powers, but Djokovic has been defiant in his determination to continue his career despite the odds of more Grand Slam glory stacking against him with each passing tournament.

His 2023 US Open triumph came at the end of a season that saw his dominance of the sport continue, but the tide began to turn when he lost against Sinner in the Davis Cup finals a few months later and when he was beaten by the same opponent at the 2024 Australian Open, the tide had turned against him.

Djokovic has had fleeting moments of hope and his win against Alcaraz at last year’s Australian Open was brightest, but he looked several steps behind Musetti for most of their quarter-final and will need to defy all logical conclusions to have a chance against Sinner.

It is inevitable that Djokovic has been in slow decline for some time and the remarkable statistic that he has now reached the semi-finals of the last five Grand Slam tournaments confirms he is still one of the very best players in the world.

Yet consistency is not enough for a champion who will not want to feel like he is making up the numbers at the back end of Grand Slams and unless he produces something extraordinary against Sinner, that is the brutal truth of where Djokovic stands in the current pecking order in men’s tennis.

If Djokovic is content with that status, he can battle on and will probably reach the back end of all the Grand Slams across 2026, but it is hard to imagine that is what Djokovic wants or needs at this stage of his story.

With that in mind, don’t be surprised if he calls time on his career quicker than he might have been expecting heading into this new season.