“I was not playing well and it was expected” Novak Djokovic talks of his frustration about his lack of playing time this season
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Novak Djokovic
World No. 1 Novak Djokovic‘s trip to Australia at the start of the season will always be one of the most talked topics in tenins. The Serbian, who was the three-time defending champion at the Australian Open this year had his visa cancelled because of his decision to not get vaccinated for Covid-19 which floluted the country’s policy for visiting foreigners.
The ban on Novak saw him miss the entire month of action in January and the player then did not play till the final week of February when he finally made his season debut at the 2022 Dubai Tennis Championships. He was defeated in the quarter-finals and then again remained absent for a month as the USA also did not allow unvaccinated Djokovic to their country and he missed the Sunshine Double and played his second tournament of the season at the 2022 Monte-Carlo Masters where he lost in his first match.
Currently playing at the 2022 Madrid Open, Novak talked about how was he affected from lack of playing time given that he was in the form of his life in the 2021 season as he finished the Grand Slams with a 27-1 record and was the favourite to claim the 2022 Australian Open and become the first man to 21 majors, but it was not meant to be.
“The one lesson I keep on learning and I don’t know if I learn it or not but life is a learning process anyway, a constant ongoing I have to be more patient and trust the process. Because of the circumstances, I haven’t played many tournaments and then I played in Dubai and Monte-Carlo, I was not close to my best and I was very rusty on the court and I didn’t strike the ball very cleanly as I would have liked.
“I didn’t move, physically also. I didn’t have much in the tank and that frustrated me as I was looking forward to playing after several months of break and I get on the court and I was not playing my best and in a way it was expected, tennis is a demanding sport, it is an individual sport so you got to play more in order to feel better, particularly on clay.
“So just being patient with all the process on a day-to-day basis, going out on tennis court, practice court and going through my Tours my shots and making sure that there is a detailed approach to the shot and then trusting that things will come together. So I felt that in Belgrade towards the end of the tournament, things were coming better and better, physically not so much but game-wise yes,” said Novak speaking with Prakash Amritraj on Tennis Channel.
“I am ready to play every single day”: Novak Djokovic
Despite the setback, Novak has scraped through to return to his former best slowly with a fantastic run in the 2022 Serbia Open where he played 3-setters throughout the tournament to finish as the runner-up. He is already into the quarter-finals in Madrid after Andy Murray had to hand him a walkover prior to their Round of 16 match. But nevertheless, the tennis community has breathed a sigh of relief that the Serbian is returning to his best.
“And here, I’ve been feeling well I had 10 days before this tournament to prepare myself paid a lot of attention to stamina workouts and trying to work on my fitness build my fitness and improve my shape on the tennis court and I played very well in the first match and got a walkover from Andy.
“I am ready to play every single day, I like the altitude here, haven’t played here in 3-years, last time I was here in 2019 I won the title so I like the way I have been striking. I feel like the patience is the key and trusting yourself, trusting the team and trusting the whole process,” said Djokovic as he looks for his fourth Madrid Open title which will be his record-extending 38th Masters title.
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Sarthak Shitole
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