Novak Djokovic was unable to produce his best tennis in the Wimbledon final and according to Günter Bresnik who formerly coached Dominic Thiem. Bresnik thinks Djokovic will lose motivation in the absence of his all-time rivals Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal.
Djokovic was the man to beat at Wimbledon since 2017 where he retired against Czech Tomáš Berdych in the second set of their quarterfinal tie. Seeing him lose to Carlso Alcaraz in five sets at SW19 in the final of the Championships, Bresnik has very different thoughts than others about the match and how Djokovic played in the nerve-wrecking five-setter.
“I cannot agree with that. The first set was totally bad, the fourth okay,” claimed Bresnik. And I was surprised how carelessly Djokovic gave up the tie-break in round two. Novak didn’t play his best tennis throughout the match anyway.”
Djokovic was undefeated at major tournaments this year but Bresnik who has coached Austrian Dominic Thiem for 17 years, believes that the 23-time Grand Slam champion has to deal with a declined motivation in the absence of other two big-three members.
“I have the theory that the rivalries with Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Andy Murray drove him to top performances – of course that also applies to the others,” said the Austrian. “Not only in the match, but also in the time in between, during training or preparing for a match. And this rivalry does not exist with Alcaraz.”
Bresnik continued, “I have always said that Djokovic will lose motivation once there is no more constant competition with Nadal and Federer and he has won 23 Grand Slam titles. Alcaraz, on the other hand, played freely and finds it easier against the older ones, because they are on the decline. The branches are high, but descending.
“I’m still convinced that Federer, Nadal, Djokovic and maybe Murray played better at their best than Alcaraz is doing today.”
The Austrian also talked about how the 20-year old ATP #1 has to be ‘lucky’ for exploiting and thriving on the descend in competition that is caused by the retired and close to retirement big threes.
“He’s [Alcaraz] lucky enough to take the stage when the best of all time are thinking of retiring, or have already done so. The level in the top ten isn’t the best at the moment either, and he’s the only one in his age group,” said Bresnik.
“He could dominate for the next few years but has yet to confirm his successes. Something can always happen, he’s had a few injuries, but it could also just get boring for him.”
Both Djokovic and Alcaraz are expected to go all against each other at the Cincinnati Masters 1000 in August which serves as a Warm-up event to the New York Open.