Novak Djokovic makes retirement admission as he chases history at Wimbledon

Novak Djokovic believes he still has several years left in professional tennis – but has admitted that Wimbledon represents his best shot at winning a 25th Grand Slam. Djokovic recently turned 38 and is the last of the older generation of stars still going, with Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Andy Murray having retired.

The Serbian star is seeded sixth at Wimbledon, behind five players who are all considerably younger than him: Jannik Sinner, Carlos Alcaraz, Alexander Zverez, Jack Draper and Taylor Fritz. He was beaten by Sinner in the semi-finals of the French Open and retired from his semi-final against Zverez at the Australian Open earlier in the year.

Although he won Olympic gold in Paris last summer, Djokovic has been tied with Australia's Margaret Court on 24 Grand Slam titles since his US Open victory back in 2023.

He has won seven times at Wimbledon and still feels he can overcome his younger opponents to make history in SW19, where he begins against Alexandre Muller on Tuesday.

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“Whether it could be my last dance, I'm not sure, as I'm not sure about Roland Garros or any other slam that I play next,” he said. “My wish is to play for several more years. I would love to be healthy physically and also mentally motivated to keep on playing at the highest level. That's the goal, but you never know at this stage.

“And yes, I would probably agree that Wimbledon could be the best chance because of the results I had, because of how I feel, how I play in Wimbledon, just getting that extra push mentally and motivation to, yeah, perform the best tennis at the highest level.”

Sinner, 23, and Alcaraz, 22, have become the dominant forces in men’s tennis in recent years, showing their talents off in true style during the epic French Open final that the Spaniard won earlier in June. But Djokovic doesn’t feel like he’s falling behind the young guns.

“In a sense you're always hunting because you're always going for the titles – in my also privileged position – the records and more history,” he said. “I do feel that I'm always in that position of going for something with the attitude of trying to win rather than trying to defend.

“Even though I have been many times in my career in that position whether it's the defending champion or being No.1 in the world, you feel slightly different because I feel everyone wants your position and stuff.

“I would say it's slightly different for me now in terms of I don't chase the rankings anymore in that regard. I'm trying to play the best tennis in Grand Slams and trying to win Grand Slams. That hasn't changed. It still stays the same.

“Even though my level of tennis has been going quite up and down and fluctuating much more than it was the case for the most part of my career, if you see the last year and a half, too, I've been kind of volatile with my results. Grand Slams stay quite consistent.”