John McEnroe has said that he is “glad” to see Novak Djokovic playing again after the 20-time Grand Slam champion returned to court on Monday.
Djokovic, playing for the first time since his deportation from Australia in January, beat Lorenzo Musetti in his opening match at the Dubai Tennis Championships.
Having been denied the chance to defend his Australian Open title after his visa was revoked, Djokovic watched from afar as Rafael Nadal claimed his 21st major title with victory in Melbourne.
McEnroe hopes that Djokovic can avoid further problems despite the top-ranked male player in the world’s unvaccinated status as things stand ruling him out of another potential title defence at the French Open.
“I’m glad Novak’s here playing again,” the American said of Djokovic’s participation in the Dubai event.
“It’s just hopefully things will be straightened out so that he can do his thing and we’ll see. It’s hard to tell.”
With top seed Djokovic absent, Nadal battled back from two sets down to beat Daniil Medvedev in the Australian Open final.
It prevented Medvedev from claiming a second successive Grand Slam as tennis’ old guard continue to largely have the edge over the next generation of stars.
McEnroe believes that the younger players will only be getting hungrier for success.
“Obviously Rafa pulled off an amazing feat,” McEnroe commented of Nadal’s triumph in January.
“I also like Medvedev - I thought he should have won it. We’ll see how he reacts moving forward and what other guys are going to step up.
“You know, at that time, these other guys have been winning everything. So you would think these young guys are getting hungry - they want to win something.”
The 63-year-old picked out fellow North American Felix Auger-Aliassime as a player of particular potential.
The Canadian reached the last eight in Melbourne but was forced to withdraw from this week’s tournament in the United Arab Emirates due to a back injury.
“Well, I like Félix lot, the Canadian, Auger-Aliassime,” McEnroe explained. “He seems the sort of the guy that I think was most likely to win from a bunch of them.
“I think there’s going to be a handful of guys that are going to [win Grand Slams].
“But right now, he’s making some incredible progress and showing a lot of people that to me, he’s going to be the guy in a few years.”
