‘I’m not worried about Novak Djokovic at all in terms of tennis, just worried about his health’
Former world No 9 Andrea Petkovic has expressed her concern about Novak Djokovic’s health after the great Serb’s early season injury troubles.
Djokovic started his 2025 campaign at the Brisbane International, where he lost in the quarter-finals to Reilly Opelka.
The world No 7 then impressed at the Australian Open as he defeated Tomas Machac, Jiri Lehecka and Carlos Alcaraz en route to the semi-finals.
After sustaining a left leg injury early in his quarter-final victory over Alcaraz, Djokovic was unable to continue after the first set of his last four showdown with Alexander Zverev.
The 37-year-old confirmed that his injury was a hamstring tear, but he made an impressively quick recovery to play at the Qatar Open around three weeks later.
Djokovic fell to a convincing straight-set defeat to Matteo Berrettini in the first round of the ATP 500 tournament in Doha — his first opening match exit at a hard-court event since the 2018 Miami Open. This leaves him with a 7-3 record in 2025.
The Serbian icon is chasing a record-extending 25th Grand Slam as well as his 100th ATP singles title overall. He won his 24th major at the 2023 US Open, while his most recent tournament triumph came at the 2024 Paris Olympics.
On an episode of Tennis Channel’s Inside-In podcast, Petkovic gave her verdict on Djokovic’s comeback from injury in Doha.
“Novak, we don’t know when he was able to start practising with that muscle tear he had in his thigh. So maybe a bit early, the comeback,” the German said.
“I don’t know, we will see whether he says something on it or whether he just needs a bit of time in the competition side and he’s already doing really well in training.
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“That’s sometimes also the case when you come back from injuries. Sometimes you’re already doing tremendously well in training and it just takes a while in competition.
“I’m not worried about Novak, I thought he played so well at the Australian Open — that match against Carlos (Alcaraz).
“Some people wanted to put this one on Carlos, I just thought he was outplayed by Novak. I didn’t think he (Alcaraz) played so badly and so I’m not worried about Novak at all in terms of tennis, just worried about his health and if he’s healthy, he will be fine.”
Last month, Petkovic marvelled at Djokovic’s performances at the Australian Open and vowed never to doubt the former world No 1 again.
“Whoever doubts Novak’s tennis ever again, whether Novak’s 37 years old or 55 years old, should from this day forth be punished with perpetual silence. Yes, I’m talking about myself,” she wrote on her blog on Substack.
“It’s not that I ever doubted the quality of tennis necessarily, it’s just that I couldn’t quite believe he would be able to retain enough explosiveness to hang with the young guys.
“Novak still has it and I would argue for three matches (Machac, Lehecka and Alcaraz), he played better than ever.
“He was still the same consistent percentage player who never misses, but conscious of his age, he hit the ball bigger and changed directions more frequently, yet still undetectable for the opposing side.”
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