By Chris Oddo | @TheFanChild | Sunday August 25, 2024
Not since Roger Federer received his fifth and closing US Open title in 2008 has a participant efficiently defended the boys’s singles title on the US Open.
4-time champion Novak Djokovic is hoping to vary all that.
Forward of his first spherical matchup with Moldova’s Radu Albot, 2024 Olympic gold medalist Djokovic advised the press that he’s nonetheless hungry for extra success on the Grand Slams.
“Hopefully that adjustments this 12 months,” he stated when advised that no man has defended the US Open title within the final 15 years. “I imply, that is the objective. The objective is at all times for me to attempt to go all the best way to the finals and combat for the trophy. I imply, that sort of mindset or strategy is not any totally different for me this 12 months.”
Even at 37, No.2-seeded Djokovic says the hearth to compete on the elite degree nonetheless burns inside him.
“Individuals would ask me now that you’ve got mainly received every thing with the gold medal, what else is there to win?” he stated. “I nonetheless really feel the drive. “I nonetheless have the aggressive spirit. I nonetheless wish to make extra historical past and luxuriate in myself on the tour. I nonetheless hope to encourage many younger folks to look at tennis, play tennis – These are a number of the the explanation why I nonetheless carry on going.”
Djokovic says that attempting to maintain tempo along with his youthful rivals is also extraordinarily motivating for him. He credit Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner for conserving him impressed to carry out at his peak degree.
“These sort of rivalries that I’ve with Jannik and Carlos, specifically, in fact, together with different guys from the technology earlier than, like, Zverev, Medvedev, Tsitsipas, , are the sort of matchups that also deliver that pleasure of competitors to me and encourage me to essentially, on a weekly foundation once I’m not competing, push myself to excellent the sport and to provide myself a capability to have the ability to run for hours with them on the most important stage,” he stated. “After all, there’s a huge age distinction, however, , that is nonetheless not, I suppose, affecting me in an enormous method.”
Olympic Gold His Best Second
Djokovic has executed so many breathtaking triumphs in his profession, one would assume he would have a tough time deciding which one was his most transferring efficiency. The Serbian legend says no query it’s profitable gold on the Paris Video games this summer time.
“I had some heartbreaking losses on the Olympic Video games, labored very laborious to attempt to get myself ready to combat for gold,” he defined. “And at 37 I believed: may this be the final likelihood? Perhaps. So I needed to push greater than I’ve ever achieved.”
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Djokovic stated that the Olympics turned out to be a dream come true, and added that he by no means felt such sturdy feelings on a tennis courtroom.
“Turned out to be probably the greatest performances I had in years total all through your entire match,” he stated. “After all within the finals towards Carlos, it was sort of a dream situation actually having my spouse and youngsters there, your entire nation watching. Only a very proud second of experiencing the gold medal, , round my neck with the Serbian anthem and Serbian flag. Very, very particular. In all probability probably the most intense feelings I’ve ever had on a tennis courtroom.
“I used to be saying that carrying the flag, being a flag bearer for my nation, opening Video games in 2012 in London on the Olympic Video games, was the most effective feeling I had total in my skilled profession, surpassed each Slam that I received, till I received the gold medal. I feel the second of once I achieved it, how I achieved it, after years of attempting, the journey, that was the best way it was, I feel makes it much more distinctive.”
