{"id":95639,"date":"2026-01-14T07:15:10","date_gmt":"2026-01-14T12:15:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/?p=95639"},"modified":"2026-01-12T22:23:50","modified_gmt":"2026-01-13T03:23:50","slug":"pat-cash-casts-doubt-over-djokovics-australian-open-chances","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/2026\/01\/14\/pat-cash-casts-doubt-over-djokovics-australian-open-chances\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cThat\u2019s the Reality of It\u201d: Pat Cash Casts Doubt Over Djokovic\u2019s Australian Open Chances"},"content":{"rendered":"

The only ATP top 8 player we have yet to see on a tennis court in 2026, whether in official competition or exhibition, is none other than Novak Djokovic<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The former world No. 1 will enter the Australian Open looking to extend his record of 10 men\u2019s singles titles at Melbourne Park, while also continuing his pursuit of a historic 25th Major crown.<\/p>\n

While this scheduling is not unusual for Djokovic, he was set to play at the Adelaide Open this week before withdrawing\u00a0due to physical issues<\/a>. The Serbian explained that he wants to recover fully and be at 100 percent fitness before beginning his Australian Open campaign.<\/p>\n

Pat Cash\u2019s Reality Check<\/h2>\n

Despite not winning a Major title in the past few seasons, one could still argue that on a tournament-to-tournament basis, Djokovic has effectively been the third-best player in the world. The only roadblocks have been the rise of Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner<\/a>, the duo who have handed Djokovic five of his seven Slam losses since the start of 2024.<\/p>\n

And now, Former Wimbledon champion Pat Cash believes<\/a> Djokovic\u2019s only realistic chance of adding to his Slam tally depends on whether one or both of the younger superstars are eliminated before facing him.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe needs two of them to fall over, that\u2019s the reality of it. So I\u2019m very, very interested to see how he goes. It\u2019s a fine balance at the end of your career to find where you are training hard enough to be fit enough to last two, even three, five-set matches, but then not pushing it too far\u2026 I don\u2019t see him beating Alcaraz and Sinner in back-to-back five-set matches and that\u2019s his problem. He can get to the semi-final again, but then he is likely to have a familiar problem.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/smartframe-embed><\/p><\/p>\n

Even Djokovic Admits the Challenge<\/h3>\n

Astonishingly, this is something Djokovic himself has more or less acknowledged. After his defeat in the US Open semifinals last year, he admitted that facing \u201cSinCaraz\u201d in best-of-five matches, given his age and accumulated wear and tear, represents an almost impossible task<\/a>, while conceding that he still likes his chances far more in best-of-three formats.<\/p>\n

But if history tells us anything about Novak Djokovic, it is that he thrives on challenges.<\/p>\n

Between his offseason comments about rebuilding his physical base<\/a> and his actions in strengthening his team with new specialist personnel<\/a>, all signs point towards one final, calculated push.<\/p>\n

Djokovic has never been one to fade quietly. As Melbourne approaches once again, it would be unwise to count him out just yet.<\/p>\n

Main Photo Credit: Mike Frey – Imagn Images<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The only ATP top 8 player we have yet to see on a tennis court in 2026, whether in official competition or exhibition, is none other than Novak Djokovic. The former world No. 1 will enter the Australian Open looking to extend his record of 10 men\u2019s singles titles at Melbourne Park, while also continuing […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5608,"featured_media":78524,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7,9],"tags":[205,5729,5862,22,2359],"class_list":["post-95639","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-australian-open","category-news","tag-australian-open","tag-carlos-alcaraz","tag-jannik-sinner","tag-novak-djokovic","tag-pat-cash"],"modified_by":"Shane Black","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95639","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5608"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=95639"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95639\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":95661,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95639\/revisions\/95661"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/78524"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=95639"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=95639"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=95639"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}