NOVAK, THE FUTURE: WHEN DO YOU KNOW IT'S TIME?
- Linda Pearce
- 5 minutes ago
- 6 min read
Just hours after watching Novak Djokovic's emotional gold medal defeat of Carlos Alcaraz at the Paris Olympics from the front row seats reserved for ITF directors, Mark Woodforde rushed onto the Eurostar for the rail trip back to London.
Across the aisle from the Australian doubles great was Andy Murray, Djokovic's future coach (although he didn’t know it then), who was travelling with his eldest daughter, nine-year-old Sophia.
Woodforde, the 12-time major winner and former doubles world No.1, was a bit sweaty and stressed.
By entering the code TFS2025 you will receive 15% off the RRP on all non-sale items when you shop online at www.racquetworld.com.au
Murray, the dual Wimbledon singles champion and former singles world No.1, had noticed the late entrance.
The pair chatted. Asked if each had attended the Olympic final. Both had.
"I said, 'If I was Novak, I'd retire on that match. I would walk away, because I don’t think he’s going to get to that level again. What do you think?'," Woodforde told The First Serve.
"And Andy said, 'Knowing Novak, I don't think he'll walk away here, but I wouldn't be surprised if he did it at the end of the year'.
"I said, 'Novak's got every jewel now. Every title. Winning that gold, to finish on that, playing for your country, it’s not going to be matched by winning the US Open, or winning another Australian Open. It doesn't match the emotions that he's just celebrated, winning the gold.
"Andy said, 'Maybe, maybe at the end of the year, but that's a big call, to say he should walk away.
"I said, 'Well, give him a few days because he's going to go back to Serbia to be celebrated... it's going to be huge'. All of those emotions, how do you come back from that?
"And here we are."
Where that is, ahead of Roland Garros starting on May 25, is what the tennis world is now digesting: the Olympic title last August was Djokovic's 99th and most recent, and the world No.6's list of recent conquerors in a modest 12-7 season replete with first-round losses in four of his past five tournaments include Matteo Arnaldi, Alejandro Tabilo and Botic van de Zandschulp.
Yikes.
As Patrick Mouratoglou and others question his motivation/movement/mindset, Djokovic has hinted that this could well be his last lap, and admitted in Madrid to the unfamiliar mental challenge of facing "these kinds of sensations on the court, going out early now, regularly, in tournaments".
Yet, clearly, one of the hardest decisions for any athlete can be choosing the time to retire. As the great Sports Illustrated scribe Jon Wertheim recently wrote, working out when to go is a bit like trying to time the stock market: awfully tough to get exactly right.
Exit a fraction too soon and potentially live with regret; leave it too late and risk the struggles that come with not being quite the player you were.
Some (Stefan Edberg and Lleyton Hewitt et al), give the fans warning and draw it out over a season-long send-off (Hewitt, of course, going on to make multiple cameo comebacks in doubles, the first in a Davis Cup as playing captain barely months after his 20th AO).
Some, like Djokovic's great rivals Roger Federer and Nadal, give a month or two's notice of the injury-enforced inevitable to come at a send-off location of their choosing, such as the Laver Cup or the Davis Cup finals on home clay.
Woodforde's long-time doubles partner, Todd Woodbridge, bowed out suddenly - after an upset second round Wimbledon defeat with Mahesh Bhupathi in a 2005 quest for a 10th title at the All England Club.
"I had always planned to play my whole year out this year, but my partnership with Mahesh didn't go as well as we would have hoped," Woodbridge said post-match.
"I didn't come to this tournament planning to retire, but I felt I had so many good, strong memories here (that) it was the right place to do it and the right time in my career to do it."
Pete Sampras remains the only player to boast a Grand Slam singles final victory - his then-record 14th, in 2002 - as his last match, while a 30-year-old Steffi Graf exited one month and one major after the last of her 22, having triumphed at Roland-Garros in 1999 before losing the Wimbledon final to Lindsay Davenport.
Around that same time, Woodforde was forming his own exit strategy. Having been part of Australia’s glorious 1999 Davis Cup win against France in Nice, the crafty leftie decided it was time to usher in the next generation at representative level, having flagged 2000 as his last year on the ATP Tour.
Newly married, he and wife Erin were keen to start a family and Woodforde - aware that he could not manage being a husband and father while being the best player he could be - knew that something had to give.
"So I felt that it was time that I started to take that step back from tennis and have the other part of my life evolve," said the former AO semi-finalist and world No.19 in singles.
It eventually happened at the end of 2000, after an Olympic silver medal in Sydney to go with the gold from Atlanta in 1996. Still, perhaps unusually, it was not a matter of body, or even mind, but of priority.
"It wasn’t the emotional side. I wasn’t battle-fatigued or weary. It wasn't the travel. I still loved getting out there, trying to front up every week. It wasn't a physical ailment at all.
"It was just that personal value that I wanted my after-career life to begin."
Long-time Woodies team members such as coach Ray Ruffels and trainer Mark Waters wanted to be sure Woodforde was certain.
Yet the winner of 67 career titles, who spent 84 weeks as the doubles No.1, looked at retired champions and wondered how they reconciled going from being the best to, well, just going, and was determined not to linger too long.
"There were moments with certain players where you'd just think 'they’re not even close to the level that they were playing for the majority of their career'. And I didn't want to go through that," Woodforde said.
"So I didn’t want to be crawling to get to the finishing line. I wanted to use it as a 100 metre sprint, getting to the tape with my chest stuck out, leaning forward to get my nose in front.
"That's how Muddy (Waters) equated it to me, and he said, ‘If that means you end the year as if you could still punch out another year, but with the satisfaction that you will embrace and walk away being number one, what a great position to entertain'.
"And so that's what I ended up going with."
Following that exchange on the Eurostar, the next time Woodforde saw Andy Murray was in the hallways of Melbourne Park in January.
In a stunning off-season development, Murray had joined the Team Djokovic coaching staff seeking to orchestrate singles major No.25 and a century of ATP titles, with the Scot clearly believing there was more to come from his long-time former foe when others saw only a GOAT in decline. The end of the pair's six-month collaboration was announced this week.
"It was early in the tournament and I said to Andy: 'Do you remember the conversation that we had on the train?''' Woodforde recalls.
"And he just laughed and he said, 'I guess things change, don't they?'."
Indeed, and if it gives Woodforde no pleasure to see former champions becoming less than they were, as confidence ebbs and rivals see invincible become beatable, he also acknowledges that only those contemplating the end can know when the time is right.
The Australian says that golden run at the Paris Olympics, coming so soon after Djokovic's post-Roland Garros knee surgery and including a crushing 6-1, 6-4 defeat of Nadal in the second round, represented the perfect send-off.
"That's where the exclamation point could have been," Woodforde said.
"There are very few that get to control your exit when you're up the top. So many players are forced out. Whether it's physical, injury, financially, or emotionally, it's just difficult for them.
"For me, I walked away when Todd and I were the No.1 team, I was owning the No.1 ranking individually. I thought 'What a way to exit'.
"So that’s why I thought it was an opportunity for Novak… and I thought maybe he would entertain that, but clearly not."
Experience the perfect blend of passion and performance at Racquet World, the ultimate destination for tennis enthusiasts throughout Australia. Explore their extensive selection of Tennis, Padel, and Pickleball gear. For all First Serve listeners by entering the code TFS2025 you will receive 15% off the RRP on all non-sale items at their online store - www.racquetworld.com.au
