Patrick Mouratoglou thinks Andy Murray may be able to “challenge” Novak Djokovic in a way that it helps the Serb find a new source of motivation but Naomi Osaka’s coach also highlights that he believes beating Jannik Sinner will be a major challenge for the 37-year-old going forward.

When the record 10-time Australian Open champion got dominated by the Italian in this year’s semifinal at Melbourne Park, some wondered if that signaled the change of the guard in men’s tennis. Then, the 23-year-old went on to win the Australian Open and US Open, while the Spanard made it all the way at the French Open and Wimbledon.

Sinner and Alcaraz’s domination left Djokovic without a Grand Slam title in a single season since 2017. And heading into the 2025 season, he is not anymore considered the man to beat in Slams. But he also has a new face in his box and evidently wants to try to do some things differently next year.

“Is Andy the right person to motivate him? I would say yes and no. I would say no because I don’t think he has that personality, he’s very quiet, but he’s very smart, and I think he’ll have good ideas on how to challenge Novak so that he finds a new form of motivation,” Mouratoglou said on Tennis Majors’ Eye of the Coach.

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After beating the Serb twice in late 2023, the current world No. 1 also won their Australian Open and Shanghai Masters final meetings. Also, the Italian earned a straight-set win over the world No. 7 at the Six Kings Slam – a star-studded exhibition where players went with full intensity because a historic prize money was at stake.

When it comes to his clashes against Alcaraz in 2024, Djokovic suffered a straight-set defeat in the Wimbledon final but also managed to beat the Spaniard in a very tight two-set Paris Olympics final.

Heading into 2025, Mouratoglou doesn’t think beating those will get any easier. However, he also believes that the 23-year-old Italian is a more difficult matchup.

“The challenge is huge because the level of Alcaraz and Sinner is impressive. It might be harder for Novak to beat Jannik than Carlos, because Jannik doesn’t give anything away. Sinner has the same skills as Novak, he covers the court very well, he doesn’t miss anything and he takes the ball earlier than Novak. So Novak will have to get back into incredible shape to dominate Jannik. I’m not saying it’s easy to beat Carlos, it’s not,” the French coach explained. Between 2019 and 2022, the 37-year-old won three consecutive Wimbledon titles – The Championships didn’t take place in 2020 because of the pandemic. In 2023, he came a win away from completing a four-peat but then lost to Alcaraz in a five-set final. This year, Djokovic again fell just short of winning Wimbledon after the third-ranked Spaniard crushed him 6-2 6-2 7-6 (4) in the final.

Speaking to reporters post-final, the record 24-time Slam winner admitted that Sinner and the 21-year-old Spaniard were better than him at the moment.

“Being able to reach the final of Wimbledon gives a great confidence boost. But I also feel like in a matchup today against the best player in the world right now for sure, other than Jannik, both of them are the best this year by far… I feel like I’m not at that level. In order to really have a chance to beat these guys in the Grand Slam latter stages or Olympics, I’m gonna have to play much better than I did today and feel much better than I did today. It’s not something I haven’t experienced before in my life.. in the face of adversity, normally I rise, learn, & get stronger. That’s what I’m going to do,” Djokovic said after the Wimbledon final.

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A few weeks later, the Serb bounced by by beating Alcaraz in the Olympic final but he also lost to Sinner in Shanghai in October.

For Djokovic, figuring out a better way to compete against the Italian and the Spaniard will probably be the key to success in 2025.