As far as Nikola Pilic is concerned, it wasn't the real Novak Djokovic out there against Carlos Alcaraz at Wimbledon.

Alcaraz came back from a set down to defeat Djokovic in five sets to win his second career Grand Slam title as well as his first at the All-England Club.

Given the nature of the win — with the Spaniard notably being the first to defeat Djokovic in a completed match at Wimbledon since 2016 — many believe there will be a changing of the guard with Alcaraz spearheading it.

But Pilic, the ex-coach of Djokovic, believes this is nothing more than speculation.

“These are pure speculations by journalists,” Pilic told Meridian Sport (via Tennis 365). “It can be, but it doesn’t have to be. Let’s see what will happen at the US Open, where he (Alcaraz) defends 2000 points, and Novak doesn’t have to do anything.

“What will happen in 10 years? Are you going to tell me that Carlos will win 14 Roland Garros titles, or are you going to tell me that he will be number one for 400 weeks? Those are two records for all time.”

As for the match itself, Pilic was left to rue Djokovic's mistakes and failed opportunities.

He even went as far as saying it wasn't the real Serbian superstar out there on the day, specifically making note of how Djokovic's serve appeared to be off.

“That was not the real Novak Djokovic,” he added. “It was not Novak’s day and Alcaraz himself admitted it. He could have won the second set, but he didn’t make those two backhands well [in the tiebreak] and his opponent took advantage of that.

“In the second set he completely fell, but in the fourth he got up and started playing well again. In the fifth, he made mistakes in his service and thus allowed Alcaraz to break. That was a problem in general during the match, the service movement didn’t look right.

“For example, in the [fourth round] match against [Hubert] Hurkacz, he served perfectly, and in the final, he did not make an ace for two whole sets. If only Novak had played as he knows how, he wouldn’t have lost.”

Perhaps there was an injury bothering Djokovic, or perhaps it was a case of Alcaraz simply being the better player on the occasion.