Former World No.1 Mats Wilander makes bold prediction about Novak Djokovic’s clay-court season

After a shocking early-round exit at Indian Wells and a loss in the Miami Open final to rising star Jakub Mensik, Novak Djokovic is now turning his attention to clay as he chases the 100th ATP title of his career in the upcoming clay-court season. But not everyone is confident in the Serbian’s ability to dominate this stretch—especially former World No.1 Mats Wilander.

The all-time Grand Slam leader will kick off his clay season at the Monte Carlo Masters, where he’s won twice in his career. That tournament begins April 6 and is expected to be followed by stops in Madrid and Rome before Djokovic takes aim at his main target—Roland Garros in Paris.

Speaking to TNT Sports, Wilander expressed doubts about Djokovic’s readiness out of the gate in Monte Carlo. “I think he’s going to run into some problems, and I think that that’s the one thing that we’ve seen with Novak in general, is that the early part of the clay season is not necessarily his best season,” Wilander stated.

The former Grand Slam champ went on to explain why he believes Djokovic might struggle early on. “The reason for that to me is that he’s a great clay-court player without being a clay court player, because of the way that he hits the ball,” he explained. “Of course, his forehand is very much like a clay-court forehand with a lot of spin, but he can, of course, flatten it out. That doesn’t really work that well on a clay court”.

Novak Djokovic of Serbia plays a forehand against Lorenzo Musetti during the 2024 French Open at Roland Garros. (Clive Mason/Getty Images)

Wilander compares Djokovic to Nadal

Wilander drew a clear comparison between Djokovic’s clay game and that of Rafael Nadal—widely regarded as the greatest clay-court player in history and a 14-time Roland Garros champion.

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“Compare that to Rafa Nadal, who immediately, as soon as he stepped out on the Monte Carlo tennis courts, he was a completely different animal,” Wilander noted. “His tennis ball was doing completely different things than they were on a hard court”.

“The other guy was just going like: ‘Hold on a second. What the hell is going on here? Because I have never seen this top spin before’. With Novak, you don’t get that. He needs two, three weeks before he starts playing well,” he added.

Djokovic needs time to settle into the clay sesason

That’s why Wilander believes that time is Djokovic’s best weapon early in the clay season. “I think the more time he can spend on a clay court, the better it is because it’s not going to be great the first two, three weeks,” he said.

Wilander also emphasized the importance of match play for Djokovic, especially with Roland Garros looming large on the calendar. “He needs to spend time on a clay court, and he needs to play as many matches, win or lose, that he can before the French Open, despite his age,” Wilander added.