Novak Djokovic has been on a roll in 2023, winning back-to-back Grand Slam titles in Australia and France, which made him the first to reach the 23 landmark in men’s singles tennis. The World No.2 is now all geared up to make it a treble, like he did in 2021, by winning the Wimbledon Championships in England as well. Despite training the hardest for the upcoming tournament, Djokovic took some time off recently to give an interview to one of his biggest fans, Julie Soyer, and there were surely some points mentioned by the Serbian which will get the tennis community talking.
Among many other topics, the Serbian touched upon the top 3 matches of his career. And it should come as no surprise that the clashes he picked from a career expanding over a thousand match wins featured the likes of Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal.
Novak Djokovic reveals the turning point of his career and 3 biggest wins
When asked about the turning point, Novak Djokovic mentioned two particular years, 2010 and 2018. Djokovic felt that during the period of 2008-2010, he had many moments of battling self-doubt. He admitted that this was mainly due to the dominance of his two biggest rivals, Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal. Though Djokovic had risen at one point in that period to the World No.3 ranking and did win the Australian Open in 2008, he was not satisfied with his overall game, contemplating even quitting the sport.
Secondly, Novak Djokovic mentioned the year 2018, in which he somehow roared back after a successful elbow surgery that kept him out of the second half of the 2017 season. Within 12 months, Djokovic won the Wimbledon and the US Open titles back-to-back as well as the Cincinnati and the Shanghai Masters. He claimed that self-doubt once again began to creep within him since the elbow was troubling him for a long period of time, which is not a good sign for a professional, competitive player.
When it comes to the 3 biggest wins, Djokovic chose his 6-hour duel with Nadal in the Australian Open 2012 final first. Till date, tennis pundits and many enthusiasts rate that match as one of the best-ever Grand Slam finals played in the history of the game, being also the longest of them all. The 23-time Grand Slam winner seems to value the time played much bigger, as No.2 in his list was the Wimbledon 2019 final against Federer. That match lasted 5 hours and 30 minutes, going into a 5-setter which Djokovic won, saving multiple match points.
But Djokovic gave a special mention to his French Open 2016 final against another rival of his who is a dear friend off the court, Andy Murray. That win gave Djokovic the first title of his career at Roland Garros in Paris, a court dominated over the years by Rafael Nadal.
Novak Djokovic chooses between winning Grand Slams and year-end No.1 ranking
Djokovic has both aspects in his favor, being the most accomplished Grand Slam winner of all-time as well as 370+ weeks as the year-end World No.1 in men’s tennis. However, when asked by the interviewer to pick between one, the Serbian opted for the No.1 ranking. In what could be interpreted as some veiled criticism towards the ATP rankings system, Djokovic gave his own example to state that despite having won 3 Grand Slams in 2021, he did not end up as the No.1 player in the world in December, but Daniil Medvedev did.
The superstar was quick to point out though, that to remain No.1 for many weeks is harder since the player needs to be fit enough to play consistently and win a number of tournaments across all surfaces.
The ATP rankings have once again raised eyebrows in recent times, since Carlos Alcaraz, the upcoming Spanish star, overtook Novak Djokovic as the World No.1, after winning the first grass court title of his career at Queen’s. Many on social media have accused the ATP of being biased towards Djokovic, perhaps due to their past disagreements on several issues. However, according to experts, Djokovic is likely to regain his No.1 ranking, should he make it to the Wimbledon final.
Yet, it could get tough for Novak Djokovic to become the year-end World No.1 again in 2023 as he could miss the US Open and the ‘North American swing’ from August-September. This is because of the Joe Biden government denying entry to unvaccinated visitors, making every single tournament appearance of his, critical for achieving results.
