John McEnroe identifies when Novak Djokovic will retire from tennis after Wimbledon comments

Kevin Palmer 03 Jul 2025 10:55 PM

John McEnroe's verdict on Novak Djokovic

Novak Djokovic appears to be finding his best form after two polished performances eased him into the third round at Wimbledon, with tennis legend John McEnroe suggesting he may already have a moment in mind when he gives up on his final tennis dream.

Djokovic is chasing a record-breaking 25th Grand Slam title that would take him one clear of Margaret Court and allow him to finish his career with the most Grand Slam titles in the history of the game.

While his motivation to play in regular ATP Tour events has waned, Djokovic moves through the gears when he plays in a Grand Slam and he turned in a stunning display to beat Britain’s Dan Evans 6-3 6-2 6-0 to seal up his 99th match win at Wimbledon.

He will be hoping to sail through the century of wins in his next match against fellow Serb Miomir Kecmanovic in his next match on Saturday, but his bigger target is a record-equalling eighth Wimbledon title.

To achieve that, he will probably need to beat world No 1 Jannik Sinner and defending Wimbledon champion Carlos Alcaraz, with Djokovic telling the BBC that the 38-year-old may quit tennis when he concludes he can no longer win any more major titles.

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“When he’s going to stop playing: the moment he thinks he can’t win one, I’m assuming,” McEnroe told the BBC.

“It’s hard with him – he’s broken pretty much every record so if he broke it I suppose that would be the perfect time to stop. But if he was still winning at that level? At worst he’s three in the world, right? So to me, it’d be pretty tempting to keep going.

“But you don’t want to get to that point where, god forbid it’s hard to even imagine, him getting beaten up by more than just a couple of people.

“He’s already said he doesn’t care about the year-end No 1 ranking, he did that for like eight years. He was chasing to be the best at the end of the year, which you’ve got to respect big time. Now he just wants to try and win majors so he’s not playing many tournaments.”

Djokovic’s stunning service performances in his first two matches suggest he could challenge Sinner and Alcaraz at the back end of this year’s Wimbledon and he is certainly feeling confident about his form.

“I’m very, very pleased with the performance. From the very first point of the get-go, I was really sharp,” he said after the thumping win against Evans.

“I didn’t really want to give Dan a chance to come back to the match. I really tried to pressure him constantly from the back of the court. I think serving, I served very well and very accurately, opening up the court. Every shot today worked very well.

“So it was great to feel that way and play that way. Obviously crowd wanted more of a match. They were trying to back him up in the third. I felt like the early break in that set, and also in the second, just helps gain the momentum and not really allow the energy to kind of shift to his end.

“If I play like today, I feel like I have a very good chance against anybody, really, on the Centre Court of Wimbledon, a place where I maybe feel the most comfortable on any court. Rod Laver Arena and Wimbledon Centre Court are the two courts where I’ve done so well throughout my career.

“I felt great physically, mentally sharp. Game-wise, I’m playing as well as I can, really, on grass. So hopefully I can keep it up.”