What in the world is going on with Novak Djokovic?

After two decades of dominance from Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer, there is talk of a changing of the guard in men’s tennis with 22-year-old Jannik Sinner and 20-year-old Carlos Alcaraz taking the tennis world by storm.

Monte-Carlo will also see the return of world No 1 and record 24-time slam winner Novak Djokovic but he hasn’t won a title before the start of the clay season so there might be some nerves heading into Monte-Carlo.

However, I feel like every couple of years there’s been a conversation about Djokovic saying that he isn’t playing well and then he comes back and wins tournaments for six months straight.

I think what makes it different this time is that the level of competition is definitely harder given where Sinner and Alcaraz have been playing unbelievably well so maybe that just puts a few thoughts into his mind.

His performance at Indian Wells might have put a few thoughts into his mind about what he needs to change. It’s not that Djokovic needs to keep up because he’s definitely at the same level but just try and improve. You might think can Djokovic even improve anymore because he’s so good and that’s valid.

In a way though, I think it makes it more fun because it’s more competitive and more exciting. Now we feel like it’s not only going to be Djokovic winning every tournament.

Another thing to point out is that Djokovic split from his long-time coach Goran Ivanisevic earlier this month.

In a post on Instagram published on Wednesday, Djokovic said he stopped working with 2001 Wimbledon champion Ivanisevic “a few days ago”, ending their collaboration that began in 2018 and included 12 Grand Slam titles for the Serb.

There is plenty of talk about doubles specialist Nenad Zimonjic replacing him and he’s a really good guy who has had a lot of success.

Djokovic and Ivanisevic got along really well and like with a lot of coaching relationships, things just run its course and you felt like they were an old married couple because they had been together for so long.

They knew so much about each other and there was some bickering as well over the last few months on the court and in the box. I think when you know, you know.

He’s been on tour so long and sometimes you just need a fresh voice. I read in a Serbian newspaper where Ivanisevic said they had run out of things to say to each other and had exhausted all conversations. It seems like they both knew it was time rather than it being one-sided which is always good.