Since the 2023 U.S. Open, the record-breaking 24th Grand Slam of Novak Djokovic’s legendary career, the Serbian icon has gone almost three years without adding to his haul of slam titles. The drought is the longest of the GOAT’s career, and at the ripe old age of 38 (he turns 39 in May), there is no guarantee that it will ever come to an end.
The body — the one that moved like a ballet dancer for the better part of two decades — suddenly started sending invoices. Semifinal exits. Withdrawals. A left thigh strapped with the sort of elaborate taping architecture you usually see in a physio textbook. Already years older than the average retiree, he is now being written off in quarterly installments by pundits who mistake caution for decline.
Online betting sites seem to agree. The latest tennis odds at Bovada make Nole a 10/1 outsider at both the French and U.S. Opens, as well as a 7/1 underdog at Wimbledon, well behind the two modern superstars Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner. But as these three wins will show, write Djokovic off at your peril. Here are the best wins of the GOAT’s “drought era.”
Olympic Gold at Long Last
Let’s be real about what Djokovic walked into on Court Philippe-Chatrier on August 4, 2024. He had played exactly one match in the eight weeks since meniscus surgery. That match — his Wimbledon final against Carlos Alcaraz — ended in a straight-sets defeat. His opponent now: that same Alcaraz, 21 years old, fresh off back-to-back Roland Garros and Wimbledon titles, playing the most explosive tennis of his already extraordinary career. Nole’s knee brace hadn’t come off. He was 37. This was the Olympic final.
What followed across 94 minutes in the first set alone was as close to psychological warfare as a sporting arena can ever provide. Alcaraz threw everything at that knee — drop shots dragging Djokovic wide, angled passing shots demanding full sprint, looping topspin bombs designed to test whether the repaired meniscus held. It did.
Thirteen break points traded in a first set that felt like three. Alcaraz drew to 0-40 in the fourth game and still couldn’t crack him. At 3-3 in the tie-break, Djokovic reeled off four straight points with the calm of a man who had been in this fire before. Despite his vast array of accolades, he hadn’t — nobody had, in an Olympic final — but you wouldn’t know it from his body language.
The second tie-break was a demolition: 7-2, clinical and cold. When Alcaraz’s final forehand clipped the net, Djokovic dropped to the clay and sobbed. Not the composed winner’s nod we had become accustomed to over the years. Full, heaving sobs — the kind that come from somewhere older than tennis, older than sport. The one honor that had eluded him was captured eight weeks after surgery, on the court where his meniscus had given way. And all of it draped in his beloved Serbian flag in front of the eyes of the world.
Injuries Be Damned
Djokovic arrived at Rod Laver Arena for the Australian Open quarterfinal against Alcaraz in January 2025 with a medical trainer already eyeing his left thigh. Ranked outside the seeds, 37 years old, facing a man who had just beaten him in Paris months earlier — the non-Olympic version, the tuneup Wimbledon loss — and who carried the weight of genuine title expectation.
The leg gave a warning at 4-5 in the first set. Djokovic took the medical timeout, disappeared briefly, returned — and calmly lost the opener anyway. Then he started constructing the Djokovic formula, which is less a tactical system than a philosophy: absorb everything until your opponent has nothing left to give, then take the match apart.
He broke at 1-0 in the second, held the thread, and grew more purposeful with every game. In the third, a 22-stroke exchange ended with a forehand winner that drew Rod Laver Arena to its feet. Moments later, a back-to-net lob sprint — the kind of defensive audacity that 37-year-olds aren’t supposed to produce — had the crowd roaring at something approaching disbelief.
He saved a break point at 5-2 in the fourth and roared on his first match point. 4-6, 6-4, 6-3, 6-4 in three and a half hours. Head-to-head: extended to 5-3 in his favor.
“Felt like a Grand Slam final,” Djokovic said afterward. “We gave everything.” He wasn’t exaggerating.
Rolling Back the Years
Five consecutive losses to Jannik Sinner. Zero wins. A head-to-head deficit that had developed its own narrative gravity: the next generation has overtaken him, and emphatically so.
Here it was, Sinner: world No. 1, two-time defending Australian Open champion, five matches unbeaten against Djokovic, and playing in front of a Rod Laver Arena crowd who expected to witness history simply continue its course. In the end, they would witness history. And better than the kind they thought they would see.
Djokovic lost sets one and three. Twice he stared at the exit. Twice he rallied back. Sinner won 90 percent of his first-serve points in the third set, yet the Serbian refused to wilt. In the fourth, he saved two crucial break points at 4-3 by upping his forehand beyond 140 km/h and pulling Sinner out of his groove. In the fifth, he saved all eight break points. Eight. Including three from 0-40 down at 4-3 — the kind of pressure situation that breaks players who haven’t spent twenty years building unbreakable mental armor. His only break opportunity in the fifth came at 3-3 in game seven, from 15-40. He won five straight points. That was enough. Final score: 3-6, 6-3, 4-6, 6-4, 6-4 in four hours and nine minutes.
“I think you guys got value for your ticket,” Djokovic grinned post-match, saying that he deserved 10% of the gate. His 11th Australian Open final awaited. Sinner’s unbeaten Australian Open run since 2023? Over.
Great article!