Novak Djokovic has admitted that he doesn’t know what comes next in his tennis career after completing his CV, but one thing is certain he wants to spend more time with his family.
The Djokovic steam train has been running since 2003 as he played his first professional match that year, but just over two decades later he appears to be closer to retirement than ever.
There were already question marks over his motivation after he made a stuttering start to the 2024 tennis season, but the 24-time Grand Slam winner insisted that he had one big goal remaining.
He fulfilled his lifelong dream when he won gold at the 2024 Paris Games in early August, defeating Carlos Alcaraz in the final to become only the fifth player to complete the career Golden Slam, which consists of the four Grand Slams and singles gold at the Olympics.
Following his early exit from the US Open, he returned last week to represent Serbia at the Davis Cup and he helped them to victory over Greece in the Davis Cup World Group I tie in Belgrade.
After the event came the first admission that his “main priorities are playing for the national team and Slams, everything else is less important”.
He suggested that he was “done” with the ATP Finals and just about most other tournaments, stating: “As far as I am concerned, I am done with those tournaments for my career. Whether I will play other tournaments this year or in the future, I can’t say right now.”
And now he has gone further by stating he will “live in the moment” as he revealed before his exhibition match against Grigor Dimitrov in Bulgaria that his schedule is pretty much up in the air.
“For the first time in my career, I don’t have any long-term plans. I live in the moment and I’ll see what happens,” he said. “I’m going to play in Sofia against Grigor, then in China, and then in an exhibition tournament in Saudi Arabia. After that, I don’t know.
“We’ll see how I feel and we’ll judge.”
But the crucial bit for Djokovic is that he wants to spend more time with his family and that can only be achieved by spending less time on the road.
His children, Stefan (10) and Tara (7), have made regular trips to watch their father compete at the biggest tournaments, but he now feels it is time to be part of their “daily lives”.
The former world No 1 added: “Family life is very important to me. I want to be with my wife and children, to be part of their daily lives, which I haven’t been able to do for many years.”
Djokovic has played only nine tournaments this year and he could well give the bit-part professional player a go at the start of the 2025 season, but there is a feeling that he is ready to call it a well-deserved day.
