Former French Open champion Yannick Noah is of the opinion that Novak Djokovic is still very much capable of winning his 25th Grand Slam, despite the Serb going Slam-less this season. Now 38, Djokovic reached the semifinals of all four Majors but couldn’t go any further, as Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner swept the titles with two each.
At the recently concluded US Open, Djokovic lost to eventual champ Alcaraz, losing in straight sets to the World No. 1. Regardless of the manner of the loss, Noah felt that it was just a matter of few points that went Alcaraz’s way.
Yannick Noah used a fitting Rafael Nadal analogy to explain why people should not write off Djokovic yet, highlighting how everyone thought Nadal wouldn’t win any Grand Slam only to be proven wrong time and again.
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"Against Alcaraz at the US Open, he played a good match, despite the three-set defeat. It came down to seven or eight points, but Alcaraz won them. You can blame that on youth, but I haven't forgotten that for Nadal, we always said at the beginning of the season before he won his last Grand Slams: it's over," Noah said in an interview with RMC.
Noah further added that Djokovic should be considered dangerous as long as he is playing at a Grand Slam, stating:
"As long as Novak plays, he's always dangerous. In a tournament, you never know what can happen. Sinner was completely dominated by Dimitrov before he retired at Wimbledon. You can never plan ahead. As long as he's in the top three or four, he can always win one."
The 24-time Grand Slam champion is currently ranked World No. 4, with only Alcaraz, Sinner and Alexander Zverev ahead of him in the ATP rankings.
Boris Becker disagrees with Yannick Noah on Novak Djokovic's Grand Slam future
Interestingly, Novak Djokovic's ex-coach Boris Becker is not on the same page with Yannick Noah when it comes to seeing the Serb's chances of winning a Grand Slam in the future.
Speaking in a recent podcast interview, Becker, who led the Serb to six Grand Slam titles during their partnership, said:
“I think, now he’s admitted that he can’t realistically win a Grand Slam because of his age and the strength of the youngsters [Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner].”
Indeed it has been two years since Djokovic last won a Grand Slam, when he prevailed at the US Open. Since then, all eight Majors have been been cleaned up by Alcaraz and Sinner.
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