Picking Novak Djokovic’s most outstanding achievement is challenging because there are so many options, but John McEnroe attempted to answer that tough question.
Djokovic had a poor year at Grand Slams by his high standards, failing to win any of the four major titles for the first time since 2017, which was the worst year of the Serbian’s decorated career.
However, the gold medal Djokovic won at the Olympic Games meant 2024 was a much better year than 2017. It had been the only significant achievement missing before he defeated Carlos Alcaraz to secure gold in Paris.
Djokovic is not as focused on all the tournaments throughout the season as he used to be. In fact, Djokovic said he might be done with all tournaments outside the Grand Slams and representing Serbia.
Playing an exhibition match with Grigor Dimitrov on Tuesday demonstrated his more relaxed approach. Djokovic had refused to play in many previous exhibitions to be fit and ready for tournaments throughout the ATP calendar.
There was a hilarious moment where Djokovic and Dimitrov did a strip tease, demonstrating the positive and unserious atmosphere inside the stadium in Sofia for the exhibition match.
That attitude is vastly different to Djokovic’s unmatched mentality in significant finals. McEnroe recounted some of his greatest achievements before picking one moment as the 24-time Grand Slam champion’s best.
“You look back at the final where he beat Nadal in almost six hours to win the Australian Open. Then you look at how he became such a great grass court player and his record of winning seven Wimbledon titles.”
“Saving the match points against Roger (Federer) in the 2019 Wimbledon final was pretty amazing and he has also saved match points at the US Open before going on to win the the title in New York.”
Despite those impressive accomplishments, McEnroe picked Djokovic’s most recent moment of glory at the Paris Olympics as his best moment because of what it meant to him and how unexpected it was.
“Yet it seems like because he hadn’t won the Olympics and that was the one missing off his record, his gold medal in Paris a few weeks ago might just mean the most to him. He stated how much he wanted to win it, so that might be right up there at the top. “
“It was pretty unexpected because he had the issue with the knee and we weren’t sure if he was going to play at Wimbledon. Then he gets to Paris and plays the way he did, beating Carlos Alcaraz in a pretty incredible final, so that win will be right up there on his list.”
McEnroe also thinks Djokovic has been underappreciated because of how loved Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal are, but that the love and respect for Djokovic will increase as time progresses.
“He has been under-appreciated. It has been difficult for him to be compared to Rafa and Roger, but he has done an amazing job to put himself ahead of those guys. In ten years, 20 years, I think people will love him even more. When he stops playing, people will realise what he brought.”
