Novak Djokovic 2025 Season Recap

The 24-time Grand Slam champion may not have won a Major title this year; in fact, he has gone two consecutive seasons without winning a Slam for the first time since 2009-10, but his year was not without success.

While the 38-year-old came unstuck at the semifinal stage of all four Majors, and suffered some surprise defeats early in the season, he still picked up his illustrious 100th (and 101st!) career title along the way.

Unusually Early Exits

Over the years, tennis has got used to the Serb reaching the latter stages of every tournament he plays. This season, though, we saw more early, unexpected Djokovic defeats than ever before.

Starting Down Under, where Djokovic exited an ATP 250 event at the quarterfinal stage for the first time in over two years after losing to American giant Reilly Opelka.

Then came even more shocks, as he lost his first match in three out of four consecutive Masters 1000 events–tournaments that he is usually so successful in, having won 40 Masters 1000 titles (the most ever).

Not all was bad though, as the one Masters 1000 event in that run he didn’t lose his first match in, he went on to reach the final. Djokovic was just one match away from a 100th career title in Miami, but somewhat surprisingly lost to then-relatively unknown youngster Jakub Mensik.

Title 100 and 101

After losing both his opening matches in the two clay Masters 1000 events, Djokovic chose to play a 250 in Geneva to get match practice ahead of Roland Garros.

After missing out on title #100 in Miami two months prior, Djokovic put that disappointment behind him and beat Hubert Hurkacz in a gruelling three hour final on Genevan clay to do something only two men prior had ever done: win 100 Tour-level titles.

His 101st title came in his final event of the year, again in a 250 event. This time in Athens, where he now resides, defeating Lorenzo Musetti, coming through a 90-minute deciding set to get within two of Roger Federer’s 103 career titles.

Stuck at the Semifinal Stage

In all four Major tournaments this season he fell at the semifinal stage. An impressive achievement, especially at his age, made even more so by the fact Jannik Sinner was the only other player on tour to do so.

But, disappointingly for Djokovic and his fans alike, his body let him down when it mattered most this year. In all four of his semifinal clashes he appeared to be physically hindered, and even had to retire from his match against Alexander Zverev after losing the first set in Australia.

Perhaps it offers a reminder that time waits for nobody. Even Djokovic, the man notorious for looking after his body to the best of his ability across his illustrious career, is not invincible. Made even more clear when he had to pull out from the ATP Finals, just minutes after winning his 101st title in Greece.

In three of his four semifinal defeats he faced either Carlos Alcaraz or Sinner, and didn’t win a set. A generation apart from the Serb, the World No.1 and 2 are on another level to the rest of the tour right now.

Djokovic is, by most accounts, the third best player on the planet right now despite what the rankings might say, but if he is to win a 25th Grand Slam, he will almost definitely have to find a way of beating at least one of the two young guns–something that will only get harder as he gets older.

What’s Next For the G.O.A.T?

Throughout 2025, Djokovic carefully planned his schedule to suit his needs, only really playing the “big” events. He played Roland Garros, Wimbledon, and the US Open back-to-back-to-back without any warm up tournaments in between, as to carefully manage his schedule to stay as fit as possible.

2026 will likely follow a similar pattern; only playing events that suit him–to maximize the time he has left on Tour. It appears the days of caring about his ranking are beyond him, as he played far fewer events than the majority of the Tour.

It is a race against time as to whether Djokovic can defy the odds one final time to win Grand Slam number 25, but whatever happens in however long he has left, we should enjoy his greatness while we still can.