Tennis: Pat Cash sceptical of Djokovic’s major hopes in 2025

Former Wimbledon champion Pat Cash believes Novak Djokovic is taking a risk by not committing to a full schedule of tennis in 2025.

Djokovic played just 10 ATP tournaments — plus Davis Cup and the Olympics — in 2024 and has repeatedly expressed that this stage of his career will be characterised by a reduced schedule.

However, Cash says the 24-time Grand Slam champion’s approach could leave him short on match fitness when it counts.

“Older players fall into this trap every time that they are trying to save their body,” the Australian said on Wednesday.

“They don’t always get a good balance on playing enough matches.

“You tend to see older players start to lose five-set matches or have more bad days and that’s natural. That’s match toughness.

“I know Novak has played a lot of matches over the course of his career, but he still needs to be match-tough going into a best-of-five-set Grand Slam tournament.

“We often say you can’t afford to get into tough five-set matches in the first week of a Slam as you need to stay fresh and that’s especially true when you get older.

“If you don’t have enough matches under your belt and you play a long one early on, I tell you what, you are going to be so sore.”

Despite Djokovic failing to win a Grand Slam in a year for the first time since 2017, the Serbian superstar is still on the first three lines of betting across tennis bookmakers for all four majors next year.

Cash feels that if Djokovic is to add to his Grand Slam tally in 2025, he will need to follow the example set by his new coach, Andy Murray.

“Andy has had a lot of injuries, but he always tried to play a lot of tournaments through to the end of his career,” he said.

“For me, that’s the big secret for Novak in the next year.

“If he can get his schedule right and make sure he has the right number of matches under his belt, he can win again.”

Bovada has the 37-year-old at +300 to win the Australian Open, behind Jannik Sinner (+175) and Carlos Alcaraz (+240).

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