He is already 37-years-old, and is the only one remaining from the ‘Big Three’, with Rafael Nadal announcing his retirement last year. Meanwhile, even rival Andy Murray retired after the Paris Olympics 2024, and has joined his coaching staff.
He hasn’t dropped any retirement hints yet, and looks set to continue for at least two more seasons, considering his mental and physical strength. But according to his wife Jelena, Novak was about to end his career seven years ago, and it took days to convince him to take a u-turn from his decision.
Novak Djokovic’s wife Jelena drops bombshell retirement story
In an interview with In Depth, she revealed that after his shock loss to Benoit Paire in the first round of the 2018 Miami Open, Djokovic had given up, and had decided to retire. “He just gathered all of us and said, ‘you know guys, I’m done’,” she said.
“I’m like, ‘but you can’t quit’, and we were crying, we were like ‘what are you doing? This is not the time’.
“It was just crazy … we went on a holiday together. When he decides he doesn’t want to play tennis … he doesn’t want anything to do with tennis, and I love tennis.”
Then Jelena revealed that it was only after a game of tennis with their son Stefan that he changed his mind. “He showed up on the third or fourth day (of the holiday), and saw me and Stef playing on the court,” she said.
“Luckily he saw how much fun we were having … he was like, ‘can I have a racquet, please?’. He took a few balls and starting serving, and he was like, ‘it’s not feeling bad, it’s OK – I’m going to call Marian (Vajda), I’m going to ask him to come back and be my coach again’,” she added.
Djokovic had a disappointing 2024 season, where he failed to win any Grand Slams, and fell down the rankings to No. 7. The only positive in his campaign last year was the Paris Olympics 2024, where he clinched gold. The Serbian has also lately been outspoken in his reaction to the handling of Jannik Sinner and Iga Swiatek’s doping cases, criticising the investigation.
