“I would not be surprised if Novak feels relieved after that tournament” – Mouratoglou
Patrick Mouratoglou believes the pressure of not losing at the Australian Open since 2018 became unbearable for Novak Djokovic
Panoramic
Coach Patrick Mouratoglou has drawn parallels between Novak Djokovic’s defeat to Jannik Sinner in the Australian Open semi-finals, and his earlier victory over Adrian Mannarino in round three of the tournament.
Despite the two matches having polar opposite results – Djokovic defeated Mannarino 6-0, 6-0, 6-3, while he was beaten 6-1, 6-2, 6-7(6), 6-3 by Sinner – Mouratoglou says something that the Serbian mentioned after his third-round win was crucial.
“When Djokovic played against Mannarino he was up 6-0, 6-0, 1-0. He played a bad game, and he lost the game,” Mouratoglou explained.
“What struck me was what he said after the match: ‘It was too much pressure to not lose one single game. I had to give away one.’ He didn’t do it on purpose, but he felt the pressure was too big.”
Pressure of winning streak at Australian Open too big for even Djokovic to sustain
Coach Mouratoglou, who runs the Mouratoglou Academy in France and coached Serena Williams from 2012 to 2022, explains what the pressure on Djokovic’s shoulders must have been like.
“Now, when you think about Novak at the Australian Open, he didn’t lose one match at the Australian Open since 2018,” Mouratoglou continued. “He never lost a semi-final at the Australian Open. He won 10 titles here. In a way, it brought so much pressure. Imagine he would win again, that would be crazy. That’s too much.
“Of course, he didn’t do it on purpose, for sure not,” said Mouratoglou on Djokovic’s semi-final loss to Sinner. “But subconsciously, he wanted to take it out of the way. ‘OK, let’s lose one. It’s just too much for me. I can’t anymore.’
“Kind of the same feeling as the one he had against Mannarino. The fact that he said that against Mannarino makes me feel that there is something there.
“Even in champions, when it’s too much pressure, sometimes they need to fail. In a way they feel relieved. I would not be surprised if Novak feels relieved after that tournament.”
Sinner loss the worst Djokovic performance Mouratoglou has seen
Against Sinner in the Australian Open semi-final, Djokovic saw all manner of records tumble in spectacular fashion. Prior to the match, the 24-time Grand Slam champion had not lost at the tournament in over 2000 days. He had also never fallen at the semi-final stage, winning ten out of ten appearances.
However, the Serbian was woeful on Friday, spraying 54 errors across the four-set loss.
“During this semi-final, Djokovic played a match that was one of the worst I’ve seen from him,” said Mouratoglou. “He wasn’t there. He was definitely not on that court on that day. He was slow, no energy, no enthusiasm.”
“Even his attitude that is always so angry, even when he is winning, when there are pressure moments, he gets angry, he shouts at his box. He was flat, completely flat against Sinner. He was just missing everything.
“The fact that Sinner didn’t have one break point to defend the whole match says it all. So that was very shocking to see Novak in a semi-final of a Grand Slam and even more at the Australian Open, that is in a way his home slam, so unable to play.”
