Novak Djokovic knows very well that his tennis talent, mental force, or even his tactical ingenuity alone won’t be enough to make him win the 25th Grand Slam title he so desperately craves. As time goes on, a major obstacle stands between him and that 25th title: his physical condition. He knows it.

That’s why he decided to hire Dr. Mark Kovacs, a specialist in physical conditioning, injury prevention, biomechanics, recovery, and on-court performance optimization.

Indeed, in 2025, Novak started the year with a superb performance at the Australian Open, where he defeated Alcaraz in the quarterfinals, but finally had to withdraw from his scheduled semifinal match against Zverev due to injury.

For the rest of the year, he suffered physical injuries that prevented him from being at his peak, and despite this, he had a very successful year according to all tennis indicators, establishing himself as the true third man everyone is looking for by reaching the semifinals of all four Grand Slams in the 2025 season.

He is clear-sighted about the fact that the older he gets, the more his chances of a 25th Grand Slam title diminish. If he focuses more on his physical conditioning to arrive at the later stages of the Grand Slams as fresh as possible, then he will have his chance, even if he will certainly have to contend with players like Carlos Alcaraz or Jannik Sinner, who take the ball earlier and therefore set a much faster pace than other players on the tour.

He has already done it in the past by beating Carlos Alcaraz in the final of the Paris Olympic Games, and he can do it again. Everything is possible with this man!