A former Slam winner shares a brutal opinion on Novak Djokovic

The former Roland Garros winner Adriano Panatta, through an interview given to the Italian newspaper Il Riformista, expressed himself on the season of his young countryman Jannik Sinner. In light of the results obtained by the Serbian champion Novak Djokovic this season, Panatta underlined how the future of young tennis players will change when Nole stops playing.

“Meanwhile Sinner has already arrived very far ahead, he is in the top four in the world, so he can only improve. I think he has all the qualities to become ATP No.1: we will have to understand whether he will get there next year or in two-three years.

He’s there now, he’s among those eligible for the big leap,” he told. Regarding Djokovic he expained: “At the moment Novak Djokovic is as if he were a Highlander, but he too will have to stop sooner or later. I believe that in the next few years Sinner will compete with Carlos Alcaraz, Hoger Rune and Ben Shelton.

This emerging American second me is very strong. They are four very talented young people who I think will dominate international tournaments,” he said.

The Old Gen vs the Next Gen vs the Middle Gen!

Panatta has a rather clear vision of the scenarios that await tennis in the coming years.

Meanwhile in 2024 the comparison between the old and new generations will emerge even more , considering that in addition to Djokovic, Rafael Nadal will return to compete. They will certainly not want to be outdone by more mature players who are still far from 30 such as Daniil Medvedev, Alexander Zverev and Stefanos Tsitsipas.

The 2023 season is definitively over but among the memories of Italian tennis fans, the double milestone achieved by Jannik Sinner against Novak Djokovic at the ATP Finals in Turin and in the Davis Cup still remains imprinted. The Italian tennis player thus wrote an important page in his career, closing a year as a great protagonist.