"That’s his big struggle": Patrick Mouratoglou highlights one problem with Novak Djokovic which was faced by Serena Williams during her last playing days

Famous tennis coach Patrick Mouratoglou believes that Serbia’s legendary tennis star Novak Djokovic is facing a similar problem that was faced by the former world number one Serena Williams. The 37-year-old, who 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, is going through a difficult phase, according to his own high standards.

Djokovic has not won a single ATP event since the start of 2024. Most recently, he announced that he will not take part in the upcoming ATP 1000 event, the Rome Open, which is set to begin on May 07. Djokovic’s most recent outing was at the Madrid Open, where he was knocked out after losing in the second round to Italy’s Matteo Arnaldi in straight sets with a score of 6-3, 6-4. Out of the last four events, the former world number one has now been knocked out after losing the first match on three occasions.

Famous tennis coach Mouratoglou has recently spoken to Tennis Channel, where he highlighted that Djokovic is facing a similar issue that was faced by Serena during her last few years. The 54-year-old stated that the former world number one is finding it hard to keep himself motivated, as subconsciously, he is asking himself what is left for him to win.

“She [Serena] lost in the first round of Roland Garros, but also two years without winning a Grand Slam, which is a lot for Serena,” he said. “She told me, ‘I just want to win one more and potentially end my career’. Because she was not playing great for two years. I mean, not to her standards, let’s say it like this. It was a lot about motivation, after she won several more we talked about the record of Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova, and the goal was to beat this one, and then of course after Steffi Graf. It’s funny, because two months, or one month before the US Open when she would, if she would have won it by the way, tie Steffi at that time. She said to me, ‘Okay what’s next. Because once I do that, what am I going to do?’ So that always chasing something for her was very important. She always had a big goal in mind that was motivating her, because of course it is difficult to imagine how it feels to win so many Grand Slams, but I guess the motivation at some point. And we see it with Novak now, that’s his big struggle. It’s not about his tennis, it’s just about him being…it’s very obvious when he plays matches and probably when he practices. Yeah, what’s his goal now that he found out how to win more Slams than how two big rivals which were Roger [Federer] and Rafa [Nadal]?”