Tennis | Nicolas Mahut’s hunch with Djokovic and Murray’s signing at Eurosport: “It’s the main question…”

There have been many authoritative voices in the world of tennis that have given their opinion about the Novak Djokovic-Andy Murray union. With the British player’s recent retirement during the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, he will now embark on a new journey such as training, at least during the preseason and the first Grand Slam of the year that you will see on Eurosport and Max, one of his biggest rivals like ‘Nole’ was at the time.

Nicolas Mahuta 42-year-old tennis player who has faced both Murray and Djokovic, has given his opinion in Eurosport France about a change that will “give a boost” to a Novak for whom the French tennis player did not have everything with him in the 2025 season .

The doubles specialist’s first reaction was surprise, as well as “I was very excited” to “see Murray back on the circuit.” “To be honest, I was quite pessimistic about Djokovic’s future, I thought he was coming to the end and I didn’t see him winning a Grand Slam in 2025, I saw him finishing his career. That was my feeling (…) When you have problems finding internal personal resources, you look for them a little outside and renewing your staff can be a trigger. Taking Andy, who has been your rival for years, will give him a boost and he will want to do well. Now I really feel like we can see a great Novak“said the tennis player born in Angers, making a general analysis of what this signing of the former Scottish tennis player could mean for ‘Nole’.

In a tennis key, Mahut also talks about what Andy Murray can contribute to Novak Djokovic and focuses on the factor that the British “managed to find a way to beat Djokovic at times“, which may lead the Serbian to ask Murray the question of “what did you do to beat me” and will it be something that “will help the Balkan“Andy (Murray) is an extremely intelligent player, who saw situations in which he could cause problems for Novak,” said Mahut about the ‘plus’ that the Scot gives in terms of knowledge of the game.

Murray can provide an important dose so that Djokovic remains competitive against Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcarazthe two tennis players who aim to be the dominators of the circuit in the next five years and who have already been so in 2024 with the exception of those Paris 2024 Olympic Games in which ‘Nole’ took the gold medal.

Regarding this factor, Mahut says that there will be an “exchange” of opinions between Murray and Djokovic “knowing the level of physicality and intensity to which Novak can still evolve.” “It is the main question at this level. Novak was dominant for years because he hit the ball so fast, he was unstoppable because he played faster than everyone else. Honestly, nowadays we have the feeling that Sinner is impregnable. Are they going to say that ‘I have to impose my game again in terms of pace’ or are they going to accept that that is no longer possible? That’s the big question“Mahut concluded about that change in his game that the Serbian has to make if he wants to compete with both Sinner and Carlitos Alcaraz.

Nicolas Mahut concludes with his personal opinion that he saw Murray as “the perfect Davis Cup captain profile to replace Leon Smith” and stating that “I’m not surprised to see Andy in this role. If Roger were a coach tomorrow, I would be much more surprised“.