Pat Rafter expects Novak Djokovic to fight back next year
Retired Australian tennis star Pat Rafter has said that he expects World No. 2 Novak Djokovic to have a "half decent" year in 2017 and predicted that the Serb will win two Grand Slam titles. Rafter also talked about Roger Federer and Andy Murray's chances in the 2017 season.
Novak Djokovic ended 2016, a year when he finally completed the career slam, in a whimper succumbing to defeat at the Rio Games and followed that up with a disappointing performance at the World Tour Finals and surrendered his World No. 1 spot to Andy Murray. However, Pat Rafter believes that it was just a speed bump in the Serb's career and expects Djokovic to win two Grand Slams in 2017.
"Djokovic will have a half-decent year again and win a couple slams," Rafter said in an interview with CNN's Open Court.
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"Will he be able to solidify it? I don't know," Rafter said about the Scottish player.
Rafter, however, said that he was excited to see how Roger Federer would do in the upcoming season after the Swiss maestro decided to end his 2016 season early to recover from a knee injury that had first surfaced in Jan 2016.
"If he's not winning a grand slam, is he struggling?" Rafter questioned Federer. "Because what is his goal? To be No. 5 in the world? I doubt it."
"I think he realistically thinks he can win another slam. Maybe he can. Whenever you are that great, you never write off a champion."