By Chris Oddo | @TheFanChild | Sunday August 25, 2024
Not since Roger Federer gained his fifth and remaining 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 instructed the press that he’s nonetheless hungry for extra success on the Grand Slams.
“Hopefully that modifications this yr,” he stated when instructed that no man has defended the US Open title within the final 15 years. “I imply, that is the aim. The aim is all the time for me to attempt to go all the way in which to the finals and combat for the trophy. I imply, that sort of mindset or strategy isn’t any completely different for me this yr.”
Even at 37, No.2-seeded Djokovic says the fireplace to compete on the elite stage nonetheless burns inside him.
“Folks would ask me now that you’ve got principally gained 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 revel in myself on the tour. I nonetheless hope to encourage many younger individuals to observe tennis, play tennis – These are among the the explanation why I nonetheless carry on going.”
Djokovic says that making an attempt to maintain tempo together with his youthful rivals is also extraordinarily motivating for him. He credit Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner for preserving him impressed to carry out at his peak stage.
“These sort of rivalries that I’ve with Jannik and Carlos, particularly, after all, together with different guys from the technology earlier than, like, Zverev, Medvedev, Tsitsipas, you understand, are the sort of matchups that also convey that pleasure of competitors to me and encourage me to actually, on a weekly foundation after I’m not competing, push myself to good the sport and to present myself a capability to have the ability to run for hours with them on the largest stage,” he stated. “In fact, there’s a massive age distinction, however, you understand, that is nonetheless not, I suppose, affecting me in an enormous means.”
Olympic Gold His Best Second
Djokovic has executed so many breathtaking triumphs in his profession, one would assume he would have a troublesome time deciding which one was his most shifting efficiency. The Serbian legend says no query it’s successful 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: might this be the final probability? Perhaps. So I needed to push greater than I’ve ever completed.”
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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 complete event,” he stated. “In fact within the finals towards Carlos, it was sort of a dream situation actually having my spouse and youngsters there, your complete nation watching. Only a very proud second of experiencing the gold medal, you understand, round my neck with the Serbian anthem and Serbian flag. Very, very particular. Most likely essentially 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 one of the best feeling I had total in my skilled profession, surpassed each Slam that I gained, till I gained the gold medal. I feel the second of after I achieved it, how I achieved it, after years of making an attempt, the journey, that was the way in which it was, I feel makes it much more distinctive.”
