Rennae Stubbs suggests age may finally be catching up with Novak Djokovic as Serena Williams' former coach thinks the Serb is starting to "struggle more and more."
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After surprisingly losing to Reilly Opelka in the Brisbane International quarterfinal, the 37-year-old bounced back well at the Australian Open and even clinched a statement win against Carlos Alcaraz before an unfortunate hamstring injury forced him to retire in the semifinal versus Alexander Zverev.
Last week, Djokovic returned to action in Doha and insisted that he was back to being fully healthy.
On the Tour, the former world No. 1 has a long history of instantly winning tournaments after injuries or not playing for an extended time.
But this time, he didn't enjoy a strong comeback in Doha after Matteo Berrettini ousted him 7-6 (4) 6-2.
Considering that Djokovic didn't win any tournaments on the Tour last year and that he had several surprising defeats, the Doha loss only led to critics using that as an argument for their claim that the world No. 7 has lost a step.
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Stubbs: Djokovic used to bounce back better than anyone, now it's a little bit of an issue
Novak Djokovic did lose to Berrettini," the former doubles world No. 1 acknowledged on the Rennae Stubbs Tennis Podcast.
"Berrettini did play the match of his life. He was hitting forehands all over the place for winners.
I know hes had his issues at the start of this year in Australia with the leg. Hes struggling with injuries over the last couple of years now with the knee, with the leg.
Novak has bounced back better than most, better than probably anyone. But this is starting to be a little bit of an issue now, not winning matches.
And then when you havent played for a while, then you come back and youre older...
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"When you go and play a match, youre pushing yourself more, youre doing a little more, youre more nervous, your bodys more uptight. And hes struggling more and more and more.
Next on Djokovic's schedule is the Indian Wells Masters, where he will try to win his sixth title and the first one in the desert since 2016.
