Novak Djokovic gets glowing Wimbledon endorsement from former world No 1
Former world No 1 Mats Wilander has made a bold Novak Djokovic prediction on the eve of Wimbledon.
Djokovic has reached the semi-finals of the first two Grand Slams of 2025, but he has come up short at the Australian Open and the French Open.
At the age of 38, he is running out of time to win a 25th Grand Slam title and move ahead of Margaret Court in the all-time list of major winners, with Wilander suggesting his best chance to achieve that goal may come on the grass courts at Wimbledon.
Djokovic is a seven-time champion at the All England Club and needs one more win to equal Roger Federer’s all-time record of Wimbledon wins, with Wilander offering Djokovic real hope that this could be his moment.
“I expect Novak Djokovic to play as well or maybe better at Wimbledon than he did at the French Open. Maybe better than he did at the Australian Open because then he got hurt there,” said Wilander, speaking in his role as a Eurosport analyst.
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“So let’s be honest, when he has had to play great, he has played great in all three majors this year. And suddenly, he goes to his favourite surface, most probably his favourite tournament, and he’s nearly taken a set or two from Jannik Sinner at the French Open.
“Jannik Sinner should have won the tournament three sets to one. So if I’m Novak Djokovic, I’m looking at, man, I could have been in the finals. I could have nearly beaten these guys French Open, give me Wimbledon and the grass.”
Wilander believes Djokovic will struggle to beat Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner in back-to-back matches, as he suggests the physicality of the game will make his dream of winning a final Grand Slam title tough to realise.
“Maybe he needs one of them to lose before he plays them,” he added.
“It’s a tough deal to play Jannik Sinner in the semifinals and Carlos Alcaraz in the finals, that’s for sure, because it becomes so physical towards the end of the tournament when the court, it doesn’t necessarily slow down, but the bounce is higher and it becomes more like a hard court. It’s very physical.
“That’s the only issue I see for him. But he’s so good when the grass is green, Novak, because the balance in his feet is incredible. And he just plays so smart, and the courts are quite slow.
“So I’m expecting huge things from Novak Djokovic. I think Alcaraz is the favourite, and then I think there’s Sinner, and then there’s Djokovic. And then there comes the rest of the group.
“That was not the case at the French Open. At the French Open, he was in the third group of favourites. Here, he’s easily in the second group of favourites, maybe close to Alcaraz.”
Mats Wilander was speaking to Eurosport, which will provide coverage of every match at Wimbledon in 11 markets in Europe as well as showing a daily highlights programme on TNT Sports in the UK and Ireland.
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