After an unsuccessful performance at the last US Open, Serbian Novak Djokovic returned to the courts again. On Saturday, September 14, the 24-time TBS champion in Belgrade defeated Greek Ioannis Xilas in 45 minutes in the World Group 1 match of the Davis Cup 2024 6:0, 6:1. Thus, Djokovic lost one game or less in a full match for the 15th time in his career. After defeating the world number 770, the 37-year-old explained how team competitions help him increase his motivation in the later stages of his career, outlined his current priorities and explained how he schedules tournaments.
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Novak began his communication with Serbian journalists with the following statement.
“Weeks like this are another motivation, they inspire me to keep playing, they take the butterflies out of my stomach.
“Over the last few years, I’ve had trouble finding additional motivation that used to be automatic. To prolong my career, I need to have fun, I need to choose wisely the tournaments I play,” Djokovic admitted.
Novak Djokovic
Photo: Zuma/TASS
Novak also talked about how he creates the competition calendar.
“Normally during my career I had a programme ready for six months, but now it is not like that anymore, now everything is more spontaneous. I need to rest physically, emotionally and mentally to start thinking about what I want to do next, how, how much and where,” added the tennis player.
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Recall that after the Davis Cup, the Serb will go to Sofia, where he will play an exhibition match with Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov. The meeting will take place on September 17. All 8,800 tickets for this match were sold out in just 10 minutes in mid-August. Next, Novak will prepare to perform at the prestigious Shanghai Masters, which starts on October 2. Note that Djokovic will play in this “thousand” for the first time in five years! The representative of Serbia is a four-time champion of the Shanghai tournament.
At the same time, Djokovic managed to surprise his fans. The athlete said that he would not play in the local 250-ton tournament in Belgrade. The tournament in the capital of Serbia will be held in early November 2024, just a week before the start of the Nitto ATP Finals. It is no secret that the final of the championship, where Novak won a record seven times, has always been one of the main goals of the tennis player. However, the fourth racket of the world managed to assure the public that at this stage of his career his priorities have already changed.
“Qualification is not one of my goals now. I am not trying to make it to the ATP Finals either. The other tournaments are over (smiles). I don’t know if I will play against them this year or in the future, but my priorities are to play for the national team and the Grand Championship, everything else is less important,” Djokovic said.
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Now Novak is only in ninth position in the championship race for the ATP Finals tournament in Turin, trailing Alex de Minaur in eighth place by just 45 points. Without a doubt, the famous Serb will be able to make it into the top eight at the Nitto ATP Finals. It is no secret that the majors are Djokovic’s priority at the moment, but it is somewhat surprising that he has practically ruled out the Finals, which are arguably considered the fifth most important tournament after the Slams for top tennis players. Winning the long-awaited Olympic gold medal at the 2024 Olympics is likely to have finally changed Novak’s priorities. It is hard to argue with the fact that the Davis Cup is a lower-rated tournament than the finals. At the same time, it is hard to blame the world sports legend for choosing the major competitions. It is not for nothing that Djokovic is the GOAT.
