Novak Djokovic insists he’s ready to go ‘full throttle for another ride’ in 2025 as he states ‘tennis is still my focus’

Novak Djokovic insists he is ready to go ‘full throttle for another ride’ in 2025, dismissing suggestions that his fire for tennis is waning.

The 24-time Grand Slam champion will be 38 by next Wimbledon, and when he pulled out of the ATP Finals in Turin, which start on Sunday, and continued his holiday in the Maldives, some questioned his commitment to tennis.

But Djokovic, speaking to TV channel Sport Klub during half-time of a basketball match in Serbia, said: ‘Tennis is still my focus. I am going at full throttle in the off-season, we go for another ride. I just needed to recharge and refresh a bit after an exhausting year.

‘I am going to play in the first week of the season, I am not sure where. Then, of course, the Australian Open.’

Djokovic ends his 2024 season without a single ATP Tour title, out of 10 events played. He did finally win a gold medal, beating Carlos Alcaraz in a superb Olympic final.

Gold for Serbia was the final piece of the puzzle for a man who has now won everything in the game. He called it ‘the biggest achievement of my career’ and it left him with nothing to prove.

But Djokovic is clearly still motivated to win a 25th Grand Slam. That would take him clear of Margaret Court as the player with the most majors of either gender, but it is likely he is more spurred on by the prospect of proving he can still live with Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz, the best of the new generation.