‘Good but not good enough’ for ‘blessed and cursed’ DjokovicFigure caption, Sinner too strong for record-chasing Djokovic in Wimbledon semi-finalByAmy LofthouseBBC Sport senior journalist at WimbledonPublished1 hour agoFor Novak Djokovic, what he is doing now is good, but not good enough.Reaching a Wimbledon semi-final at 39 – having beaten an opponent 14 years his junior over five hours and 15 minutes – showed he could still play at a high level.But two days later, Djokovic left Centre Court having been ruthlessly swept aside by world number one Jannik Sinner in straight sets.
For most players, reaching a Grand Slam semi-final and final in the same year would be a success.
Not for Djokovic, who has been at the very top of the game – winning almost every title there is and breaking almost every record in history.
“For me, it’s good but not good enough,” Djokovic mentioned. “I’m blessed and cursed to be used to something of a highest degree in terms of results and achievements.
“I’m telling myself, ‘this is amazing that you’re still able to play at such a high level and push the youngsters to the limit.’
“But I always have the highest expectations for myself.”
When Djokovic met Sinner at this stage last year, he was carrying an injury.
This time, there was no injury. But there was another year in the body and another 16 hours and 32 minutes of court time in the legs, against an opponent who moved well, served even better and barely offered a glimpse of weakness.
Djokovic would have hoped for better from himself.
But as former world number one Andre Agassi mentioned on BBC TV: “In this sport, as in life, hope is fragile but hard to kill.”
