Speaking about his goals for the rest of the 2024 season, Novak Djokovic of Serbia stated that achieving Grand Slams and representing his country are the most important things in life.
In the Davis Cup, Djokovic made his comeback yesterday, defeating Ioannis Xilas 6-0 6-1. In their Group I match, Serbia will face an exhausted Greek lineup without Stefanos Tsitsipas.
In his first match since his unexpected loss in the US Open’s third round, Djokovic talked about how the Davis Cup gives him more motivation as his career ages.
Djokovic explained: “Weeks like these represent another motivation, they inspire me to keep going, they awake those butterflies in my belly. I thought that I would never have to seek motivation anywhere, it all used to come naturally – automatically – but that has not been the case in the last few years. In order to prolong my career, I need to enjoy, I need to choose wisely the tournaments I am going to play.”
Next week, Djokovic is expected to play an exhibition match in Sofia against Grigor Dimitrov before making his first appearance at the Shanghai Masters in five years.
But Djokovic doesn’t seem to have much planned for his schedule after that. He talked about it and said: “After that, I am going to see what am I going to do. Usually in my career, I used to have my schedule ready six months in advance, but nowadays that’s not the case, now it’s more spontaneous. Firstly, I need to physically, emotionally and mentally rest in order to even start thinking what I want to do next, in what way, how much and where.”
And even though Djokovic has won a record seven titles at the tournament, including the one from last year, he has stated that making it to the ATP Finals is no longer his objective.
He continued: “Torino is not my goal at all, to be honest, I am not chasing ATP Finals, I am not chasing the rankings etc. As far as I am concerned, I am done with those tournaments for my career. Whether I will play in other tournaments this year or in the future, I can’t say right now. My main priorities are playing for the national team and Slams, everything else is less important.”
Novak Djokovic in 2024
Currently the world no.4, Novak played his last match on the 14th of September when he defeated world no.770 Ioannis Xilas 6-0 6-1 in the Rubber 2 of the Davis Cup (draw).
Currently, during this season Djokovic has a compiled 32-8 match record. Novak clinched 1 title in Paris. Djokovic got to the final in Wimbledon.
He is also scheduled to play in Shanghai (Shanghai Rolex Masters) on the 2nd of October and Paris (Rolex Paris Masters) on the 28th of October.
Novak Djokovic |
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