Just before the start of the epic SF clash between the seven-time champion, Novak Djokovic, and the current world number one, Jannik Sinner, several tennis experts shared their predictions for this match. But surprisingly, most of them were heavily inclined towards the Serb. Djokovic’s former coach, Goran Ivanisevic, said, “He’s never lost to Sinner here…Novak has already beaten him twice. For me, Novak is the favourite, as sentimental as that may sound.” Even when Roger Federer was asked to make a prediction for this match, he said, “I think Novak.” But Jannik Sinner had other plans! He literally outclassed Djokovic in every department.

The Italian defeated Djokovic by 6-3,6-3,6-4. We’ve already seen these two struggling a bit with some injury concerns ahead of this match. Although Sinner sailed through this match comfortably, was there something that hindered Djokovic’s performance in this match? We saw him dealing with a hip and groin injury during this SF clash.

When asked how physically compromised he felt in this match, Djokovic said, “Quite a bit. It wasn’t a pleasant feeling on the court. But I don’t want to talk about in details of my injury and whine about not managing to play my best. I want to congratulate Jannik for another great performance. That’s it. He’s in the finals, he was too strong. I feel disappointed I wasn’t able to move as well as I thought or hoped I would.” Is Djokovic’s age taking a heavy toll on his performance now?

Speaking more on this, he added, “It’s just age, the wear and tear of the body. As much as I’m taking care of it, the reality hits me right now, last year and a half, like never before, to be honest. It’s tough for me to accept that because I feel like when I’m fresh, when I’m fit, I can still play really good tennis. I’ve proven that this year.”

Does that mean he’s thinking about retirement? “Hopefully it’s not my last match on the Centre Court. I’m not planning to finish my Wimbledon career today. So I’m planning to come back definitely at least one more time, play on the Centre Court for sure. I’ve put everything I possibly can when it comes to training and preparing myself so I can play my best at Grand Slams. I think, regardless of the fact that I haven’t won a Grand Slam this year, or last year, I still feel like I continue to play my best tennis at Grand Slams,” Djokovic declared.

At the 2025 AO, we saw Novak Djokovic being forced to give a mid-match walkover to Alexander Zverev due to an injury. Then at the French Open, he went down to Jannik Sinner in a similar fashion. What is really going wrong for him, though?

Novak Djokovic analyzes the root cause of his recent struggles at Grand Slams in particular

Currently ranked sixth in the world, Novak Djokovic has a win-loss record of 26-8 this season. Although he secured his 100th career title at Geneva, his 25th Grand Slam title seems to be a far-fetched thing at the moment. His last success at the major stage came at the 2023 US Open. Ever since then, it has been mostly the ‘Sincaraz’ show. What has been really going wrong for the Serb at the major, though?

Well, in his post-match press conference, Novak Djokovic said, “I guess playing best-of-five, particularly this year, has been a real struggle for me physically. The longer the tournament goes, the worse the condition gets. I reach the final stages, I reach the semis of every Slam this year, but I have to play Sinner or Alcaraz. These guys are fit, young, sharp. I feel like I’m going into the match with tank half empty. It’s just not possible to win a match like that.”

Seeing his failure at the 2025 Wimbledon, American legend John McEnroe raised a question mark about his future at Wimbledon. While sharing his thoughts on BBC, he said, “He is going to have a lot of thinking over the next month or so. Does he look at is as if the reason I lost is because I was injured, is it just a combination? It’s the first time I have ever looked at him and thought I am not sure he is going to come back.”

What does Novak Djokovic have to say about his future at this iconic grass-court major tournament, though? Well, in his press conference, when the Serb was asked a similar question, he replied, “I would be sad, but hopefully it’s not my last match on Centre Court. I’m not planning to finish my Wimbledon career today. I’m planning to come back, definitely at least one more time.” We’ll see if he comes back next year or not, but Djokovic also shared his verdict on the final. He kept Carlos Alcaraz slightly ahead of Jannik Sinner in that match. Who, according to you, though, has the real edge in that epic grand finale on Super Sunday? Check out EssentiallySports’ minute by minute update of the Championships on our Live Blog.