Novak Djokovic, Emma Raducanu and Jannik Sinner

The 2025 tennis season is about to get underway and players at different ends of their careers are facing a crucial 12 months.

Novak Djokovic’s future in tennis may be decided if he fails to reignite the passion and desire he needs to compete at the top, with his decision to add former rival Andy Murray to his team evidence of his desire to try and reignite his sporting burners.

If Djokovic is near the end of his sporting journey, 2021 US Open champion Emma Raducanu is aiming to push for more steps forward after making some good progress in 2024 on her comeback from three major surgeries.

The final player who will be at the heart of the tennis debate in the coming months will be world No 1 Jannik Sinner, who will be favourite to defend his Australian Open title in Melbourne next month and is also awaiting an appeal against his fail drug tests from March last year.

WHAT NEXT FOR NOVAK DJOKOVIC?

The most successful male tennis player of all-time has set his sights on one final push for glory in 2025 – and don’t be surprised if he succeeds.

After the Serbian struggled to find the motivation to push for titles outside of the Grand Slam and the Olympic Games this year, he needs to rediscover the desire to play more regularly in 2025.

In an exclusive interview with Tennis365 in his role as an ambassador for the Bank of China Hong Kong Open 2025, former Wimbledon champion Pat Cash warned that that plan may not work for Djokovic.

“Older players fall into this trap every time that they are trying to save their body and they don’t always get a good balance on playing enough matches,” Cash told Tennis365.

“You tend to see older players start to lose five-set matches or have more bad days and that’s natural.

“That’s match toughness. I know Novak has played a lot of matches over the course of his career, but he still needs to be match-tough going into a best-of-five-set Grand Slam tournament.

“We often say you can’t afford to get into tough five-set matches in the first week of a Slam as you need to stay fresh and that’s especially true when you get older.

“If you don’t have enough matches under your belt and you play a long one early on, I tell you what, you are going to be so sore.

“Andy has had a lot of injuries, but he always tried to play a lot of tournaments through to the end of his career and for me, that’s the big secret for Novak in the next year. If he can get his schedule right and make sure he has the right number of matches under his belt, he can win again.”

Cash is right to suggest Djokovic needs to find his mojo in events outside of the Grand Slams if he is to add more notches to his legacy, but he will have two big targets in his mind.

Djokovic is one tournament win away from claiming 100 titles and one Grand Slam away from beating Margaret Court’s all-time great for major wins.

Verdict: Djokovic will win his 100th title and he will be a big contender to win one more Slam, especially if Sinner is suspended for a large part of the year.

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RADUCANU’S GOLDEN CHANCE

Emma Raducanu has a golden chance to silence her doubters and make some big strides forward in 2025.

The Brit struggled with niggling injuries that forced her to pull out of too many tournaments this year and the addition of fitness trainer Yutaka Nakamura to her team could be a key appointment.

“I think he is going to help me just really explore how far I can go, athletically,” said the 22-year-old.

“I think it’s a big strength of mine that I have nowhere near fulfilled. I think I can become one of the best athletes out there in tennis and I’m just looking forward to seeing how much I can do and I think he’s really going to help with that. And the way I’m working with him and Nick, it’s a lot more integrated.”

Raducanu has limited ranking points to defend in the first few months of 2025 and if she can stay fit and get some match wins under her belt, there is every reason to believe she could be among the seeded players by the time the French Open and Wimbledon roll around next summer.

Verdict: Raducanu to get back into the top 20 of the WTA Rankings and looking out for at least one run to a semi-final or better at a Grand Slam. 

SINNER’S WAITING GAME

The world No 1 has done a great job if staying focused on the job after his failed drug tests in March.

He was cleared by the International Tennis Integrity Agency of wrongdoing after an anabolic steroid was found in his system, but the World Anti-Doping Agency has appealed against that judgment and is calling for a one to two-year back for the Italian.

It remains to be seen whether the concern around that appeal will affect Sinner’s mentality in the opening months of 2025 and there is a widespread expectation that he will face a suspension from tennis at some point next year.

If his appeal verdict came in around April, which has been highlighted as a potential date for the hearing at the Court of Arbitration for Sport, he could be ruled out of the French Open, Wimbledon and the US Open.

Sinner’s legal team will be doing all they can to avoid that fate, but this story looks certain to be a big headline grabber as it develops.

Verdict: Sinner is being tipped to face a ban from tennis and he will almost certainly appeal if that verdict is reached. The length of that process will be a huge factor in the long-term damage. If Sinner is allowed to play, he will be favourite to defend his US Open title in August, but we have so much water to pass under his bridge between now and then.

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