Djokovic: “People are constantly trying to undermine my achievements”
The Serb wasn’t expected by many to do well against higher-ranked players at the Australian Open this year
Julien Nouet / Tennis Majors
Following his win over Carlos Alcaraz in the quarter-finals of the 2025 Australian Open on Tuesday (January 21), 10-time champion Novak Djokovic told the Serbian media that he was used to seeing people doubting him for no reason – even at the age of 37.
“Many people have doubted me my whole life. People are constantly trying to undermine my achievements, but that’s part of being a very successful athlete. With me even more, because of where I come from and a million different things and reasons. It’s not something that discourages me, on the contrary, it motivates me to prove to others and to myself that I can still win on the biggest stages. I’ve proved it once again today,” said Djokovic.
The Serb is scheduled to lock horns with world No 2 Alexander Zverev in the semi-finals on Friday and he is excited about the challenge the German would bring. If he manages to overcome Zverev, he’ll likely meet top-ranked Jannik Sinner in the final.
“It’s not the end of the tournament, I probably have an even tougher task at hand. In order to lift the title, I will probably have to beat No 3, No 2 and No 1 players in the world. I am looking forward to the challenges, it’s because of opportunities like this I keep on playing,” the 24-time Grand Slam champion added.
Injury concerns for Djokovic
Djokovic struggled with what appeared to be a hamstring injury that he sustained in the first set before beating Alcaraz 4-6, 6-4, 6-3, 6-4 in their eighth head-to-head meeting, with the Serb now leading 5-3.
As expected he didn’t practise on Wednesday at Melbourne Park, thus it will be interesting to see if he hits the courts on Thursday.
“The adrenaline is huge, it’s not easy to go to sleep after matches like these,” Djokovic told Serbian press a few minutes past 2am in Melbourne. “Every evening match I go to bed around 3am, now obviously much later because I’ve got much work to do with Miljan (Amanovic, physiotherapist). That’s necessary because we need to assess the situation (with the injury), to get as much work as possible on it straight away. That’s my main preoccupation heading into the next match – to be physically fit, because a win like this lifts you up emotionally and mentally.”
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