Novak Djokovic’s 2025 season started with some regrets. The former world No. 1 dreamed of shocking the world already at the Australian Open – a tournament where he made tennis history – but had to surrender to a left thigh injury suffered during the quarterfinals against Carlos Alcaraz.

Despite that problem, the Serbian legend still won that match by achieving yet another feat of his career, but he had to retire during the semifinal against Alexander Zverev also receiving boos from the crowd.

In addition to the first Major of 2025, the 37-year-old from Belgrade also played the Brisbane International and the Doha ATP 500. In both cases he was eliminated earlier than expected – respectively by Reilly Opelka and Matteo Berrettini – showing that he struggles a lot to keep motivation high in secondary tournaments.

Djokovic has more injuries

The current world number 7 is expected to play the Masters 1000 in Indian Wells and Miami in March, two tournaments that could be very important to bring him closer to the top positions of the ATP ranking again.

Nole wants to be among the top four players in the world by the start of Roland Garros, so as to avoid very tough obstacles already in the round of 16 or quarterfinals (as happened at Melbourne Park this year).

In a long interview with ‘Tennis365’, top analyst Marcus Buckland revealed Djokovic’s main problem at this point in his career: “It’s all going to be down to his fitness.

I saw images of him the other day limping, so we don’t entirely know where he is physically heading into Indian Wells. There are one or two question marks there.”

He also added: “The guy is almost superhuman, but he can’t go on forever and it has suddenly started to look a little more difficult for him to do what he wants to do.

It’s difficult to find your consistent best if your body is not allowing you to do that.”