Novak Djokovic has lost his mental toughness, claims former tennis pro

The tennis great has made a poor start to the 2025 season as he has a 7-4 win-loss record with three of those defeats coming in his last three outings.

Following his retirement from his Australian Open semi-final against Alexander Zverev and first-round loss to Matteo Berrettini at the Qatar Open, Djokovic suffered a third consecutive defeat as he lost in three sets against Botic van der Zandschlup in the second round of the Indian Wells Open.

It was the first time since 2018 that he had lost three in a row and only the second time since 2008 that the infamous occurrence has taken place.

But there was no angry reaction from Djokovic after the match as it was more a shrug of the shoulders during the post-match press conference as he stated: "I'm disappointed that I lost, but I guess, you know, if you put things in that larger perspective, of course I've had an incredible career.

"Being consistent for so many years, obviously you have high expectations of yourself.

"You know, things are different obviously for me the last couple of years. I've been struggling to play on the desired level. Every now and then, I have couple good tournaments, but, you know, mostly it's really a challenge. It's a struggle for me."

Former WTA world No. 9 Coco Vandeweghe says the 24-time Grand Slam winner might have lost some of the fire in his belly as she argued that he "is not as mentally tough as he once was".

"We have to give Botic some credit, he showed up, he played big ball and you have to give the man credit where credit is due," the American said on the Tennis Channel.

"But I do think is this Novak getting too comfortable with 'I'm okay with losing'. It's a weird feeling as a player when you have a couple of losses like that where you see him in the press room and he is a little bit too smiley and you have to think 'Is he not as mentally tough as he once was?'

"You have just got to question that a little bit. I still think you can't count out the GOAT in any tournament, in any situation, but I do question are we getting a little bit too comfortable with these guys beating you in these 1000 events.

"We know Novak is looking at Slams and are we getting a little too comfortable and maybe that will happen at Slams."

Djokovic made no excuse for his poor performance as he was blown away by Dutchman Van der Zandschlup in the deciding set, going down 6-2, 3-6, 6-1.

The former world No. 1 added: "Obviously, no excuses for a poor performance. Just it doesn't feel great when you play this way on the court, but congratulations to my opponent. You know, just a bad day in the office, I guess, for me.

"You know, I regret for the level of tennis, considering how I practice these days. To be honest, the difference between the center court and the other courts is immense. Ball is bouncing on the center courts higher than some of the highest clay courts, to be honest.

"Yeah, just struggled a lot with that. Couldn't find the rhythm."

Vandeweghe's fellow tennis pundit Prakash Amritraj hit back as he believes the 37-year-old has a "different perspective" on tennis and life in general.

"Do you think maybe he is processing things differently at this stage in his career? He is a bit more mature, when we are a little bit younger we are little bit more hot-headed so maybe you see that fire and anger against the losses a bit more, but he could just have a different perspective," he questioned.

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