Six months separated the best and worst of Novak Djokovic’s 2026. In Melbourne, he reached yet another Australian Open final, and his adoring public were suddenly thinking that that elusive 25th Grand Slam could yet arrive after all. Then the body started sending its invoices.
Djokovic’s Difficult Year
A fourth-round defeat to Jack Draper at Indian Wells. A loss in his opening match in Rome to qualifier Dino Prizmic. A third-round collapse at Roland Garros, where Joao Fonseca recovered from two sets down to win 4-6, 4-6, 6-3, 7-5, 7-5. Cincinnati brought a first-round loss to Thiago Agustin Tirante in brutal heat, and on 30 August in the Big Apple, Mariano Navone beat him 7-6(5), 5-7, 4-6, 6-2, 6-1 to hand the GOAT an immediate exit from a Slam for the first time in two decades.
Djokovic is out in the first round of the US Open 😱🤯
What an upset by Mariano Navone! https://t.co/ireeRiGdzK
— Bovada (@BovadaOfficial) August 31, 2026
Is there a crueler sight in tennis than the sport’s greatest winner vomiting and cramping through a first-round exit? That defeat in the Big Apple was his first opening-round loss at a major since the 2006 Australian Open, and the rankings of 14 September dropped him to No. 12, outside the top ten for the first time since July 2018. He admitted he didn’t know whether the problem could be fixed, and the wait for a 25th major began to sound less like a countdown and more like a eulogy.
Resurrection in Beijing
Then came Beijing, the one city where Father Time had never found Nole’s address. Back for the first time since 2015, ranked No. 11 as of 28 September, he arrived with six titles, a 29-0 record, and a position among the contenders with online betting sites. Top online sports betting sites listed Djokovic as a +900 third favorite, still some way behind +185 frontrunner Alexander Sverev, but by no means out of contention.
Nole would duly leave Beijing with a seventh crown, though not as anyone scripted it: Daniil Medvedev was defaulted for striking a spectator with a ball while trailing 7-5, 5-3 in the semi-final, and world No. 9 Alex de Minaur retired with a groin problem in the final after Djokovic had taken the first set 7-6(3). Neither was a walkover, so both count as wins, and his Beijing record reads 34-0. It’s his first title of 2026 and his 102nd overall.
Suddenly, Djokovic may well be thinking of having one last crack at Slam number 25 in 2027. And if we look back at what has no doubt been the most difficult year of his storied career, there have been plenty of signs that there may still be some gas left in the 39-year-old tank just yet.
Jannik Sinner, Australian Open Semi-Final
Few gave Djokovic much of a chance in Melbourne. He’d won Athens in November, then withdrawn from the ATP Finals with a shoulder injury. Seeded fourth, he received a fourth-round walkover when Jakub Mensik pulled out with an abdominal injury, then trailed Lorenzo Musetti by two sets before the Italian retired hurt early in the third. Nursing a blister on his right foot, Djokovic conceded he’d been “lucky this time.” Jannik Sinner, the two-time defending champion, had beaten him five straight times, and he lay in wait in the semifinals.
What followed was extraordinary. Down two sets to one as the clock ticked past midnight, Djokovic broke to open the fourth, leveled, then broke in the seventh game of the decider. Sinner fashioned 18 break points across the night; Djokovic saved 16, including all eight in the fifth set, three of them as he served at 4-3. The 3-6, 6-3, 4-6, 6-4, 6-4 victory, sealed on his third match point after four hours and nine minutes, was one he likened to his 2012 final against Rafael Nadal.
Carlos Alcaraz beat him 2-6, 6-2, 6-3, 7-5 two days later to complete the career Grand Slam, ending Djokovic’s perfect record in Melbourne finals. Even so, at 38 he had become the oldest Open Era finalist there, surpassing Ken Rosewall’s 1972 mark.
Félix Auger-Aliassime, Wimbledon Quarter-Final
By July, the warning lights were flashing everywhere. Draper, Prizmic, and Fonseca had all beaten him, and Sinner arrived as defending champion and top seed. Djokovic, seeded seventh, reached the last eight, where the third seed Félix Auger-Aliassime waited.
What came next became the longest quarter-final in Wimbledon history. Djokovic needed treatment on his left calf in the first set yet still edged a 12-10 tiebreak. Auger-Aliassime leveled, and when officials closed the Centre Court roof, Djokovic protested to the referee that “we’re an outdoor tournament.”
He took the third, led 2-0 in the fourth, and watched it slip away in another tiebreak. The Canadian fired 29 aces. Deep in the deciding tiebreak, with the 11 pm curfew approaching, a wide Auger-Aliassime forehand handed Djokovic a 9-4 lead, and he closed out a 7-6, 3-6, 6-3, 6-7, 7-6 win after five hours and 15 minutes.
It brought a record eighth consecutive Wimbledon semi-final and a record 107th match win at the All England Club. It also cost him. Sinner took full advantage of a worn-out Djokovic to cruise to a straight-sets win three days later, then defeated Alexander Zverev to retain the title. The heart had answered; the legs had not.
Alexander Zverev, China Open Quarter-Final
Beijing followed the bleakest stretch of Djokovic’s career. With Sinner withdrawn, top seed Zverev, champion at Roland Garros and the US Open, was the favorite and chasing top spot in the world rankings. Djokovic, seeded sixth, hadn’t won a match since Wimbledon. He beat Nuno Borges 6-3, 7-6(2) despite a medical timeout, then needed two hours and 52 minutes and more treatment around his ribs to see off wildcard Bu Yunchaokete 4-6, 7-6(2), 6-2. Could a 39-year-old who needed the physio in both of his first two matches have any chance of beating a newly confident Zverev in the form of his life?
Two double faults cost him serve in the opening game in the quarterfinal against the German. The crowd booed when the umpire ordered a point Djokovic had won to be replayed after Zverev complained about flickering LED signage. Djokovic later blamed the cold, admitting he “didn’t feel warmed up.” So, he changed the script, rushing the net and varying the pace. A cross-court winner broke Zverev at 5-4 to seal the second set; in the third he held for 5-4, then broke again. Zverev struck 19 aces and still lost 4-6, 6-4, 6-4.
Medvedev’s default and De Minaur’s retirement did the rest. The title lifted him to ninth in the live Race to Turin, and a record-extending 17th ATP Finals appearance could yet be just around the corner.
