“They are studying Federer, Nadal and me,” Novak Djokovic boldly admits of not being afraid of the next gen
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Novak Djokovic
The world No.1, Novak Djokovic admits that he is not afraid of the next-gen players and is ready to fight till the end. Djokovic earlier this week stepped into his 378th week as No.1 which is a record in tennis history.
After defeating Tallon Griekspoor 6-2, 6-3 in the second round of the Dubai Tennis Championship, he spoke about many things like his generation of players and the next-gen. Since the beginning of Rome last May, Djokovic has won 49 out of 52 matches, and currently holds a record of 14-0 for the season.
In the post-match interview, the Serbian said, “New generations are coming. But I’m not afraid. I don’t believe in coincidences in life. Everything happens for a reason. It’s great that the big names that you mentioned were all born in the same decade. I’m sure that things that we talk about today, we feel some of the achievements are just not reachable maybe in 10 years time or whatever, that we’ll be seeing someone surpassing basketball’s biggest records, or tennis.”
Speaking about the next-gen, he said, “I would be surprised if that didn’t happen, to be honest, because everything is improving so much. One is getting to learn from people that came and have done some great things before them. I’m sure that the young players in tennis are studying Federer, Nadal, my career, how we go about things on and off the court, what made us successful. That’s what I was doing. I mean, if you really want to be No. 1 in the world, best in your craft, so to say, you need to learn from the people that have been in those shoes.”
Novak Djokovic is in no mood to stop anytime soon
The 35-year-old, Novak Djokovic has been on a roll this season right from his first title at Adelaide International. After surpassing Roger Federer a while ago, he recently surpassed Steffi Graf for being No.1 most weeks. He also equaled Rafael Nadal’s tally of 22 Grand Slam titles and will definitely eye on the 23rd this year.
The Serbian is already looking forward to the next year’s Olympic games. He won a bronze medal in his first Olympic games in Beijing in 2008. However, he failed to win another medal in the 2012,2016, and 2021 Olympic games. Nevertheless, the 2024 Olympic games in Paris will most likely be his last one and he is determined to win a gold and complete his trophy cabinet.
The world No.1 is all set to play the fifth seed, Hubert Hurkacz later today in the third round at Dubai. It will be tough for sure for the Serbian as Hurkacz has been playing some fine tennis recently and will give a tough fight to Djokovic.
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Santhosh Tenneti
(308 Articles Published)