Patrick Mouratoglou has had his say on Novak Djokovic’s career after the Serb won Olympic gold.
Novak Djokovic has been tipped to stay at the top of the game for a few more years (Image: Getty)
Novak Djokovic has been backed to keep playing at the top of the game for several years after winning his first Olympic gold medal.
The world No. 2 was having a disappointing season by his standards. But his first title of the year was the one that always evaded him – the Olympics.
Top tennis coach Patrick Mouratoglou has now claimed that Djokovic managed to capture the gold medal because his rivals “touched his ego”.
Djokovic was in tears as he finally won Olympic gold in Paris, beating Carlos Alcaraz in two tiebreak sets. There were plenty of question marks surrounding him coming into the Games after a rollercoaster year.
The Serb suffered some uncharacteristic early exits at tournaments like Indian Wells and, for the first time in almost two decades, reached the middle of the season without winning any titles. To make matters worse, he injured his knee at the French Open and underwent meniscus surgery.
But everything changed at the Olympics where he won just his second medal 16 years after claiming bronze in Beijing. And Mouratoglou now believes Djokovic can keep playing for years, so long as he has rivals to motivate him.
“I think Novak can still play three or four years at the highest level. The real question is about his motivation. I think he really struggled with motivation until the Olympics,” Serena Williams’ former coach said.
Djokovic’s long-time rivals Roger Federer and Andy Murray are both now retired while Rafael Nadal looks to be on the decline. And Mouratoglou thinks the 37-year-old struggled until new and old competitors resurfaced.
He continued: “Everybody felt like it was the end for Rafa, Novak felt it too. For sure, it hit his motivation really hard. But after that, Rafa came back on clay, his level was good and I think this gave extra motivation to Novak. Sinner started to play great. Alcaraz again.
“I think it touched his ego, and he came back really strong and finally won the title that he was chasing his whole career, which was a gold medal at the Olympics to complete his collection of trophies.”
Mouratoglou, who also coached rising star Holger Rune, now wants to see Djokovic form rivalries with younger players to keep him going for the next few years. “So what’s going to happen now in the future? He’s in great shape, he plays unbelievable tennis. He’s ready to compete, I think, two, three, four years at the highest level,” he added.
“But he needed this competition between him and Roger and Rafa to be the greatest. The only confrontation he can have now is probably Carlos and Jannik pushing him, beating him, him feeling his ego touched and wanting to show that he’s still great.