'I'm done': Seven years since Novak Djokovic came close to retiring from tennis

Novak Djokovic made some comments after the exit from the French Open, which raised concerns about his future. The 38-year-old lost to Jannik Sinner in the semifinal in straight sets with a score of 6-4, 7-5, 7-6.

After the match, Djokovic stood in the centre of the court and thanked the people sitting in the arena for showing support throughout his career. While talking to the media later that day, the Belgrade-born player admitted that this might well be the last time he played in the competition.

"This could have been the last match ever I played here, so I don't know,” he said. “That's why I was a bit more emotional even in the end. If this was the farewell match of the Roland Garros for me in my career, it was a wonderful one in terms of the atmosphere and what I got from the crowd. Do I wish to play more? Yes, I do. But will I be able to play in 12 months' time here again? I don't know. That's all I can say for the moment."

Interestingly, this is not the first time that Djokovic has thought about bidding farewell to the game. He came extremely close seven years back as well. Djokovic, at that time, was struggling with fitness concerns and had a strained relationship with then-coach Andre Agassi. He suffered a surprising defeat to Hyeon Chung in the Australian Open fourth round that year. Later, he was knocked out of Indian Wells after losing to qualifying player Taro Daniel. At the Miami Open, Djokovic lost to Benoit Paire.

His wife, Jelena Djokovic, shared details about the incident with journalist Graham Bensinger back in 2020. She recalled how Djokovic informed his team members about his decision to quit tennis and even asked his manager to talk to the sponsors. Jelena stated that she and their kids made Djokovic rethink about his decision.

'You know guys, I'm done.' And I was like, 'What?' And he goes like, 'Yeah’,” recalled Jelena. “He said, 'Edoardo, you can speak with my sponsors. 'I want to be clear with them. I don't know if I'm stopping for six months, a year, or forever. Just tell them if they feel like sticking around they can. If they don't, I'm happy. I just want to make sure everybody is OK with this’. I [decided to] take the kids to the court every day. On the third day, Novak arrived. He saw that we were having fun and that it wasn’t a workout like what he had been used to for years. Novak asked me if he could play and get a racket, but I refused. I started teasing him and told him that he had given up. That it was our turn to play tennis. In the end, he served and said that he felt good, then he came back every day to finally call his coach Marian Vajda and ask him to resume training."