"I don't think that he needs to practice": Mats Wilander highlights what Novak Djokovic must do to have chance of winning French Open

Former world number one Mats Wilander believes that Serbia’s Novak Djokovic needs to stay on the clay court in order to have a realistic chance of winning the French Open. The 37-year-old is regarded as the greatest player in the history of men’s tennis in the singles category in the Open era, having won as many as 24 Grand Slam titles.

Djokovic is going through a bit of a lean patch. He has not won a single ATP Title since the start of 2024. Since then, his only triumph was winning an Olympic gold medal in Paris, where he defeated Spain’s Carlos Alcaraz in straight sets with a score of 7-6, 7-6.

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Djokovic most recently played in the Miami Open, where he finished as the runner-up after losing to young Czech Republic’s Jakub Mensik in straight sets with a score of 7-6, 7-6. Former world number one Wilander recently spoke to TNT Sports, where he stated that the Belgrade-born star must spend time on the court to have a realistic chance of winning the French Open.

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"So to me, he needs to spend time on a clay court, and he needs to play as many matches, win or lose, that he can before the French Open, despite his age,” he said. "I don't necessarily believe at his age that taking two, three, four weeks off before you play another match is good. I think it's matches that he needs. I really do. I don't think that he needs to practice any more - I don't know if he gets any better any more in practising. I think he needs to get better at playing matches again because that's the one thing you lose. When you start losing a little bit of confidence and when you get older, you start forgetting how to play matches and how to bring your intensity level to 100 per cent on points that are not important on the scoreboard, but points that Novak used to think are important, like the beginning of matches. Now, you cannot practice the nerves that you have for the first 10, 15, 20 minutes in the match. Those nerves can only be practised when you are playing a match."

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