Novak Djokovic calls clay the most challenging surface after rusty win in Monte Carlo
Novak Djokovic won his first-round match at the Monte-Carlo Masters with great difficulty.
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Novak Djokovic (Image Credit: FirstSportz)
Novak Djokovic started his campaign at Monte-Carlo Masters on a winning note. However, he struggled a bit in the first set to win against Ivan Gakhov in the first round of the competition 7-6 (7/5), 6-2.
The Serbian was playing in his first match after missing out on participation in the Sunshine Doubles. Hence, he looked rusty and did take a little more time to get a hold of the conditions and the surface at Monte-Carlo Masters. In a recent interaction with press following his victory, he talked about his strategy to adapt with the conditions and the surface.
“Well, you know, I can speak on my own behalf. I mean, clay surface for me is the most challenging surface to adapt, you know, to get into the rhythm,” Novak Djokovic said. “Historically, I mean, throughout my career I needed one, two weeks of tournaments to really start to play the way I want to play. So, you know, it’s the case again this year, you know, even though I trained for three weeks and I felt good playing practice points.
“But, you know, it’s different when you play a match, especially, you know, today was quite windy on the court so not easy to find the rhythm, to have the ball right, the ball toss, and playing a lefty, playing someone that has not much to lose,” the 22-time Grand Slam champion continued. “All these things are playing a factor in the way you feel on the court. I’m really glad I overcome the first step, because I hope things will be better and easier from this point onwards,” the Serbian added.
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Novak Djokovic reveals his struggles to adapt to clay surface conditions
The current World No.1 has an impeccable record on hard courts. He won the Australian Open ten times and the US Open thrice in his career. He has also won the Wimbledon seven times. However, on clay he has been less successful.
Despite that the greatness of man is such that he has won 18 titles on this surface which include 2 French Open and 11 ATP 1000 Masters titles in his career. Novak Djokovic also knows that he needs more time to adapt on clay compared to other surface. He reiterated the same to the press.
“I mean, it’s my game. I don’t know. Maybe for some other guys it’s more natural, I guess it’s easier for them to adjust to this surface, to the movement, to the ball striking, in a way finding the right tempo on the shots,”the Serbian said.
“I don’t know. For me, it just takes more maybe than some other guys. That’s how it is, how it always was,” he continued.
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Abhar Indorkar
(451 Articles Published)