‘Players have started to realise Novak Djokovic is not invincible – the mental victory is not as hard’
Former doubles world No 1 Rennae Stubbs believes the “mental victory” required for players to beat Novak Djokovic is “not as hard” to achieve as it was before.
Djokovic has not won a match since his stunning victory against Carlos Alcaraz in the quarter-finals of the Australian Open in January.
The 24-time major champion retired after losing the opening set of his semi-final match with Alexander Zverev at Melbourne Park due to a hamstring injury.
The Serbian then fell in straight sets to Matteo Berrettini in the first round of the ATP 500 tournament in Doha, having previously held a 4-0 record against the Italian.
In his opening match at the Indian Wells Masters, Djokovic was beaten in three sets by Botic van de Zandschulp, who entered the event as a lucky loser.
The world No 5 will aim to end his losing run at the Miami Open, where he will face 86th-ranked Rinky Hijikata in his first match.
Speaking on an episode of her podcast, Stubbs declared she thinks players no longer view Djokovic as being “invincible.”
“At some point, you hit an age where things just get harder,” Stubbs said. “And at 38, you get little bit slower, you get a little bit more nervous, you get less confident, and he hasn’t won a tournament since he won the Olympics last year.
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“I just think it’s getting harder, and I don’t care who is in your corner, you gotta do it yourself. You gotta convince yourself you’re still good enough to win the matches.
“And these guys are only getting better and better, and the key is that the players, they’ve started to realise that he’s not invincible. The mental victory for these players, it’s not as hard.”
Stubbs, a winner of six Grand Slam doubles titles, also revealed she observed Djokovic discussing his forehand with coach Andy Murray in Miami.
“All the players were out there, doing their warm-ups, and Novak was out there, and I saw him standing over there, maybe 20 meters away from me,” the Australian explained.
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“And he’s standing and talking to Andy about something on his forehand. And the amount of times I see him do that on a practice court, or off the court, he just has a session to make something better.”