Social Media and Strict Professionalism Too Early," Djokovic Discusses Player Burnouts

Mental health is an increasingly recurring theme in high-level sports. It’s not uncommon to see players suffering from burnout and ending up exhausted.

When asked about this by Sasa Ozmo, Novak Djokovic pointed out the main causes: "The first thing that comes to mind is that social media is extremely present and heavily influences an athlete’s mood and daily rhythm, especially the younger ones, but also the older ones.

Everyone is on social media, and it’s easy to get lost in it, to fixate on comments, on what someone types on a keyboard or phone… and it hurts. It’s not insignificant. This is a topic we need to discuss seriously.

The fact is, in my opinion, that young players are pushed into strict professionalism too early, before they’ve even developed their emotional intelligence, which is an integral part of psychological preparation for life.

When a talent is spotted, they’re pushed toward professionalism—play, play, play—and then all sorts of agents get involved, those who are focused on success, and they push the player to compete as much as possible to win more.

It’s a vicious cycle, and if a player gets a little lost in it, it can deeply affect their mental state and their life.

For most of those who play the full schedule, a season runs from January 1st to the end of November. Other sports also have more competitions now, but tennis is individual—there are no substitutes, no ‘I don’t feel well today, can you replace me for five minutes so I can rest’…

Here, every point counts, every day counts. If you want to reach the top, you have to dedicate your entire life to tennis and the sport.