Serbian tennis superstar Novak Djokovic is standing on the brink of history. He is all set to end this year with the World No. 1 ranking and will therefore break Pete Sampras’ record of six years in the Open Era. Winning the Paris Masters will be enough for the Serb to bag the No. 1 ranking for this year.
Ahead of the Masters 1000 event, Djokovic was excited that he is in such a position to challenge the record. The 34-year-old feels that making the record his own was one of the biggest motivations for him.
“Well, I’m very grateful to be in this position again, and that’s one of the biggest motivations of why I will try to finish this season strong,” Djokovic said.
Technically Djokovic has two shots, if he fails to win the Paris Masters he can still win the ATP Masters. Considering his form on hard courts he is easily the favourite to claim the record.
“I have two big opportunities here (and then) in Turin. You know, historically I have played well indoors. So hopefully I can use the good records in the indoor tournaments for this season again,” Djokovic said.
The 20-time Grand Slam winner is still in shock that he is so close to such a record. He was still in shock as he considered Pete Sampras his idol while growing up.
“Let’s see. Obviously, Pete Sampras has been one of my childhood role models, growing up, and matching his records (and) surpassing his records it feels a little bit surreal even nowadays,” Djokovic mentioned.
During this conversation, Djokovic was also asked about the pressure and excitement that he felt at the US Open. He lost the finals against Daniil Medvedev and fell short of the historic Calendar Slam title.
The Serb won the first three Grand Slams with relative ease as he was very dominant and going through a purple patch. However, his body started giving up physically and mentally during the Tokyo Olympics when he lost in the semifinals against Alexander Zverev.
Djokovic now feels that he is relieved and can play his natural game as he is not burdened with expectations.
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