One of the undisputed legends of the game, Novak Djokovic (38), is set to compete in this year’s last grand slam and one of the most revered formats of the sport, Wimbledon 2025. The seven-time Wimbledon winner is already two years older than Federer and Nadal were when they won their final major titles.
However, this tournament marks the best chance for Djokovic to secure the elusive 25th major title because of his success at the tournament and his experience on grass, which remains a somewhat more difficult surface for many of his younger competitors.
Despite these advantages, this tournament presents an incredibly tough challenge for Djokovic as he prepares to clash with much younger players, including Alcaraz, who’s the defending champion for the tournament, along with World No. 1 Jannik Sinner. Both Sinner and Alcarez remain favourites for this year’s Wimbledon as per the rankings released by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP), whereas Djokovic has slipped to the sixth spot.
Hot favourites this season
Alcaraz is widely speculated to be the favourite for this grand slam, in light of his impeccable recent performance at the Queen’s Club Championship, along with his proven form on grass. Sinner, on the other hand, might have to get past Djokovic on what is statistically Djokovic’s best surface and Sinner’s worst.
Motivation will be higher at Wimbledon than anywhere else. It’s only a year since Djokovic reached the final, and that was when he had just undergone knee surgery. Earlier this week, Djokovik again made headlines during his practice session with Alcaraz, where he joked that the young Spaniard had not shown him ‘enough respect’ at Wimbledon during their last two power-packed clashes at the tournament’s finals. The pair met in the final at SW19 in both 2023 and 2024, where the Spaniard came out on top on both occasions.
Dominance on the grass court
The points are shorter on grass, so negotiating seven best-of-five-set matches ought to be less taxing and presents one of the best strategies for the male tennis player with the highest number of grand slam titles.
Furthermore, the two young hotshots remain relatively inexperienced on this surface — they have both played only 32 ATP Tour-level matches on it — and Sinner in particular seems to still be finding his form on grass.
Djokovic has consistently performed exceptionally well at Wimbledon over the last decade, achieving a 92.8% win rate. This surpasses his performance at other Grand Slam events, where his win percentages are 92.4% at the Australian Open, 89.8% at Roland Garros, and 88.8% at the US Open.
Speaking ahead of this year’s tournament, Djokovic said he viewed Wimbledon as his best chance, “because of the results I’ve had, because of how I feel, how I play at Wimbledon, just getting that extra push mentally and the motivation to perform the best tennis at the highest level”.
The seven-time Wimbledon champion is already a year older than any male grand slam champion of the open era. There is no precedent for a man winning a major so deep into their respective career. If he manages to win it again this year, Djokovic would meet Roger Federer’s record of winning 8 Wimbledon titles in the Open Era, setting this up as the next career-defining opportunity for one of Tennis’s all-time greats.