Novak Djokovic is a ‘unicorn’ – but is his schedule contributing to his injuries? Leading expert reveals
Leading athlete welfare and injury prevention expert Stephen Smith has discussed Novak Djokovic’s remarkable longevity, and also the legendary Serb’s ongoing battle with his body.
Smith, who is the founder and CEO of Kitman Labs — the world’s leading sports science and data company — also offered his take on the possible impact of Djokovic’s approach to scheduling.
For the first 20 years of Djokovic‘s staggering career (2003-2023), he was able to remain healthy consistently and largely avoided major injuries. An elbow injury that emerged in 2016 and required surgery in 2018 was the most serious physical issue Djokovic sustained in this period.
However, Djokovic — who turned 38 in May — has been affected by injuries far more frequently over the last 18 months, particularly in the latter stages of Grand Slams.
The 24-time Grand Slam winner tore the medial meniscus in his right knee at the 2024 French Open. He made an incredibly quick recovery from knee surgery to reach the final at the 2024 Wimbledon Championships and win the 2024 Paris Olympics, but he has faced a host of problems since.
The former world No 1 retired from his Australian Open semi-final against Alexander Zverev in January due to a hamstring tear and was visibly hampered in his Wimbledon semi-final loss to Jannik Sinner in July.
Djokovic then looked physically spent after just two sets of his US Open semi-final defeat to Carlos Alcaraz last month, having looked short of fitness throughout the event.
He also faced physical difficulties throughout his Shanghai Masters campaign and was clearly suffering in his semi-final loss to Valentin Vacherot.
While Djokovic refused to shed light on what he was dealing with against Vacherot, he gave a clear insight into his struggles with his his body after his quarter-final win in Shanghai.
“There’s always something happening with the body pretty much every match that I play right now,” the world No 5 said after beating Zizou Bergs at the Masters 1000 event.
Speaking exclusively to Tennis365, Smith shared his thoughts on Djokovic’s ability to remain at the elite level into his late thirties, and also the injury issues he is being derailed by.
“It’s testament to both probably his genetics and I think his professionalism, as well and the investment he’s made in his body and his career,” Smith said.
“But when you look at him and compare him to other athletes in the same sport of the same kind of age profile, et cetera, and that exposure to the same level of game and demands, I think he’s a unicorn, for sure.
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“I think, obviously at his age, and I think with the amount that he competes, wear and tear… he’s had a hamstring issue that forced him out of the Australian Open semi-final earlier this year, he had a groin injury at Wimbledon and a meniscus issue last year at the French Open.
“I think all of these bits and pieces are indicative of wear and tear. But also, if you think of the impact, it’s kind of looked like, his career, he was extremely healthy, and now he’s sort of had four of five injuries that have popped up in a row.
“I think sometimes that time off that you get when you’re nursing an injury means that your training load drops and then you come back in and you’re expected to compete at the same level, and that can cause a cascading sequence of injuries.”
In the latter years of his career, Djokovic has played far more sparingly than he did in his physical prime, with the intention of peaking for the four Grand Slams. He played only 11 events in 2024, while Shanghai was just his 12th event of 2025.
There is an argument that Djokovic’s limited schedule could be a factor in the problems he has encountered when he has gone deep at majors in 2024 and 2025
Asked whether playing more outside the Grand Slams could help Djokovic, Smith said: “Absolutely, I think we often see this where player management kicks in and we try to rest our players more and give them more time off.
“And then it turns out that that actually backfires because the physicality of our games, the intensity of our games, regardless of sport today, have only got bigger, faster and stronger.
“And then we end up, we try to rely on, ‘He’s got a lot of miles in the bank, can we just rely on that and pop back in and do less?’
“But you’re still expected to play at the same physicality and the same intensity, you’re still expected to back it up, day after day, in the middle of those big competitions as well. And that takes an enormous toll on your body.
“And if we don’t have that kind of resilience built in, we’re not constantly training to that level, then that can be a huge issue.
“So yes, I do think at times that too much rest and too much recovery can also have a negative impact. We’re always trying to find that perfect balance between what’s the right amount of stimulus to keep people healthy without overloading them and breaking them, or without underloading them and leaving them susceptible to injury as well.”
