Former World Number 1 and seven-time Grand Slam champion Mats Wilander spoke to Omnisport at the ATP Champions Tour at the Albert Hall in London about the prospects for Novak Djokovic and Rafa Nadal for the 2016 season.
The Swedish tennis legend believes that winning the next Australian Open will be very important for the motivation of Djokovic in his attempt to win the career Grand Slam.
“I think for Novak winning the Australian Open is going to be very important because once you start the next year and you are not winning, everyone thinks you are going to win because you won it five times before. If he wins that, I think he has another serious shot at winning all four Grand Slams. Obviously if he doesn’t win it then you wonder what’s going to happen to his motivation because his motivation is extremely high every day of the year and it’s tough to keep that up. The start of the year is everything for him this year.”, said Wilander
Wilander beliees that Djokovic will be the biggest obstacle for Nadal in his return to the top. Nadal could not advance the quarter final stage at any of the four Grand Slam tournaments but showed encouraging form at the end of the 2015 season in which he reached the semifinals at the ATP Finals in London where he lost against Djokovic.
Wilander thinks that Nadal has the chance to battle for the Grand Slam titles in 2016 but Djokovic will be again the man to beat.
“It did not turn out to be the best year for Nadal but I think that he is back in terms of the respect in the locker room. He is back because he is not going to lose to too many players that are ranked lower than him. 2015 was a pretty decent year for any normal human being. If Rafa doesn’t run into Novak in the quarter finals, maybe in the final he has a chance to win again”, said Wilander.
“Is he going to beat Novak Djokovic in a tennis match ? That’s the big question because that’s the person who he has to figure out. It’s all about can he win a slam and can he beat Novak Djokovic, on the way to do that ? I don’t think we know that until he has actually done it.”
