‘Novak Djokovic is going to run into some problems on clay’, predicts former world No 1

Seven-time major champion Mats Wilander has explained why he thinks Novak Djokovic is going to encounter “problems” early in the clay-court season.

Djokovic will play his first clay tournament of the season at the Monte Carlo Masters, which will get underway on April 6.

The 37-year-old is a two-time champion in Monte Carlo, although his 72.2% win rate (39-15 record) at the event is his lowest at any of the nine Masters 1000 tournaments.

The Serbian was a semi-finalist in Monte Carlo last year, which is his best result since he secured his second title in 2015.

After Monte Carlo, the world No 5 is expected to play the other clay-court Masters events in Madrid and Rome before the French Open.

Djokovic’s 99th and most recent title was on the clay courts of Roland Garros at the 2024 Paris Olympics. He secured his third and most recent French Open crown in 2023.

In an interview with TNT Sports, Wilander outlined why he does not think Djokovic possesses a natural clay-court game as he drew comparisons with Rafaek Nadal.

“I think he’s going to run into some problems, and I think that that’s the one thing that we’ve seen with Novak in general, is that the early part of the clay season is not necessarily his best season,” the former world No 1 said.

Novak Djokovic News

Exclusive: Novak Djokovic is ‘fighting against something difficult’ in milestone title quest

Novak Djokovic ‘very much part of the process’ of PTPA lawsuit, claims co-founder

“The reason for that to me is that he’s a great clay-court player without being a clay court player, because of the way that he hits the ball.

“Of course, his forehand is very much like a clay-court forehand with a lot of spin, but he can, of course, flatten it out. That doesn’t really work that well on a clay court.

“I think for someone like him, when he goes and plays his first few clay-court tournaments, pretty much any person in the draw, I think, feels that they have a chance to play with Novak to make it a close match because of the way that Novak plays.

“Compare that to Rafa Nadal, who immediately, as soon as he stepped out on the Monte Carlo tennis courts, he was a completely different animal. His tennis ball was doing completely different things than they were on a hard court.

“The other guy was just going like: ‘Hold on a second. What the hell is going on here? Because I have never seen this top spin before’. With Novak, you don’t get that. He needs two, three weeks before he starts playing well.

“That’s why, to me, I think the more time he can spend on a clay court, the better it is because it’s not going to be great the first two, three weeks.

“It never really is for him. But then it starts coming along and in Rome, that’s usually when Novak starts playing his best clay-court tennis, and that’s when we all go: ‘Okay, hold on a second. We didn’t think Novak was going to be a threat this year at the French Open. I take that back. He is now a threat’.

“So to me, he needs to spend time on a clay court, and he needs to play as many matches, win or lose, that he can before the French Open, despite his age.”

READ NEXT: ‘Novak Djokovic won’t stop until he gets 25th Grand Slam’, says Wimbledon winner