THE LAST DANCE? WHY THE 2026 AUSTRALIAN OPEN COULD BE NOVAK DJOKOVIC’S FINAL ACT
Mark Woodforde warns Novak Djokovic may retire in 2026 if the Australian Open fails. Inside the quest for a 25th Grand Slam title.
Novak Djokovic is heading into another season with questions swirling around him. Former Grand Slam champ Mark Woodforde thinks Djokovic might hang up his racket sooner than most people expect.
Djokovic is chasing his 25th Grand Slam title—a record—and trying for his 11th Australian Open win. But at 38, he’s up against some tough odds. Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner have been dominating men’s tennis for the past two years, and beating them won’t be easy.
Djokovic has said he wants to stretch his career all the way to the 2028 Olympics, but that’s a huge ask. He’s admitted his motivation isn’t what it used to be.
Now, Woodforde, who has 17 Grand Slam doubles titles, shared his thoughts about where Djokovic’s head might be as he heads into his 22nd Australian Open.
“If he doesn’t have a good result at the AO, I wouldn’t be shocked if he decides to retire,” Woodforde told Tennis365. “That’s just my gut feeling.”
“You can’t put ‘mediocre’ and ‘Novak Djokovic’ in the same sentence,” he added. “Last year, you could blame injuries and recovery from the previous season, but age is catching up with him. It happens fast as you get older. This Australian Open is key. It might decide whether we’ll still see him out there in 2026.”
Pat Cash, another former Wimbledon winner, also weighed in. He said Djokovic is trying to do something almost impossible—win a 25th major against younger opponents.
“I’m really curious to see how he goes,” Cash said.
He talked about how tricky it is at the end of a career to train just enough to last those long, brutal matches, but not so hard that you get hurt.
“You have to save enough energy so you’re not exhausted, but not overdo it and end up injured before the tournament even starts. When you’re young, you can bounce back from a five-set match pretty quickly. Later on, your body just doesn’t recover the same way. That’s just reality. So the fact that Novak is still out there is incredible.”
“He always finds a way to solve problems, so it’s going to be fascinating to see how he handles the Australian Open. Has he played enough? Has he trained enough? Is he pacing himself for the big matches—and will that approach work?”
“I just don’t see him beating Alcaraz and Sinner in back-to-back five-setters. That’s the real challenge. He might make the semis again, but then he runs into the same wall.”
DOHA DISASTER: IGA SWIATEK AND ELENA RYBAKINA BOTH CRASH OUT IN QUARTER-FINAL SHOCKERS
Massive upsets in Doha! Maria Sakkari stuns Iga Swiatek while teen Victoria Mboko takes down Rybakina. Read the full analysis.
World number two Iga Swiatek and Australian Open champ Elena Rybakina both made early exits from the Qatar Open on February 12, falling in the quarter-finals to Maria Sakkari and Victoria Mboko.
Swiatek, the top seed and defending champ, started strong; she broke Sakkari twice in the first set and looked on track for another easy win. But Sakkari, who’s had a tough stretch lately, dug in. She fought back, grabbing a tense 2-6, 6-4, 7-5 win. Afterward, Sakkari admitted, “It’s been a while since I had a big win like today.” She used to be ranked as high as No. 3 in the world back in 2022 but has slipped all the way down to 52. “When you drop in the rankings and you’re not playing good tennis, you start doubting yourself. You think you’re never going to beat those players again,” she said. “So it’s a huge process you have to go through in your head that you can do it.”
Sakkari, 30, had beaten Swiatek three times earlier in their careers, but not since 2021. Swiatek had won their last four matches, including a straight-sets victory in Qatar last year. “Last year, in the second round here against her, I was not confident; I was not believing in myself, and this year it’s different. I feel a lot better,” Sakkari said. She’ll now play either Karolina Muchova or Anna Kalinskaya in the semi-finals. “I’ve missed that feeling of going deep into tournaments.”
Swiatek, who dominated this event in 2022, 2023, and 2024, looked ready to do it again. But after dropping the first set, Sakkari found something extra. She broke early in the second set, and even though Swiatek kept responding, Sakkari steadied herself, broke again, and took the set. For the first time in their seven matches, they went to a deciding set. It was back-and-forth—Swiatek saved a match point, but Sakkari served out the win, finally sealing it on her third chance. The match lasted just under two and a half hours.
Right after that, Victoria Mboko kept her hot streak going. She beat Rybakina 7-5, 4-6, 6-4 in a match that was only six minutes shorter than the Sakkari-Swiatek battle. Mboko had already beaten Rybakina once this year, in the Montreal semi-finals, and she came out swinging again, breaking Rybakina’s serve three times in the first set. She dropped her own serve twice but still took the set. Rybakina bounced back to grab the second, but the 19-year-old Canadian had the edge in the third and closed it out 6-4.
Mboko, who lost to world number one Aryna Sabalenka in Melbourne a few weeks ago, now faces Jelena Ostapenko in the Doha semis. Ostapenko, the 2017 French Open champ and last year’s runner-up, made it through by beating Elisabetta Cocciaretto 7-5, 6-4.
ELITE CLUB: SEBASTIAN KORDA HITS 150 ATP WINS TO JOIN CARLOS ALCARAZ AND JANNIK SINNER
Sebastian Korda secures his 150th ATP win in Dallas. Discover the six stars born after 2000 who are chasing Sinner and Alcaraz.
Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner are still running the show on the ATP Tour, but they’re not the only young guns making waves. Four other players born after 2000 have now reached 150 career wins, joining the exclusive club right behind the top two.
Sinner leads the pack with a massive 326 ATP wins, leaving Alcaraz in second with 287. These two haven’t just piled up the numbers, either—they’ve basically owned the Grand Slams lately, splitting the last nine majors between them.
Even so, this generation isn’t just a two-man race. Sebastian Korda made headlines at the Dallas Open by picking up his 150th ATP win against Michael Zheng. That puts him in the same bracket as Alcaraz and Sinner. Felix Auger-Aliassime sits just behind the top two with 270 wins, then comes Lorenzo Musetti at 184 and Holger Rune with 175.
Let’s be honest right now, Alcaraz and Sinner are still the players everyone’s chasing. But with both of them sitting out this week, the door’s wide open for someone else to step up. Korda, Taylor Fritz, and Ben Shelton are all battling it out at a Dallas Open packed with American talent. Meanwhile, Alex de Minaur and Auger-Aliassime are among the big names at the Rotterdam Open.
Take a look at the last nine Grand Slam winners, and it’s pretty much a Sinner-Alcaraz highlight reel:
Australian Open: 2024 Sinner, 2025 Sinner, 2026 Alcaraz
French Open: 2024 Alcaraz, 2025 Alcaraz
Wimbledon: 2024 Alcaraz, 2025 Sinner
US Open: 2024 Sinner, 2025 Alcaraz
Of course, there’s always hope that players like Rune and Jack Draper can mix things up, but Rune’s currently injured, and Draper’s just getting back after a long layoff. Then you have rising talents like Learner Tien and Joao Fonseca, both recent Next Gen ATP Finals champs, just like Alcaraz and Sinner were earlier in their careers, who might be the next to challenge the big two. The race is on, but for now, Alcaraz and Sinner are still setting the pace.