Novak Djokovic to copy Roger Federer tactic

Novak Djokovic took his ninth Australian Open title by dominating the final against Daniil Medvedev. The world number 1, who seemed one step away from retirement in the third round against Taylor Fritz, once again demonstrated his incredible mental strength and special connection with the fields of Melbourne Park. Thanks to his third consecutive success in the Happy Slam, the 33-year-old Serbian scored his 18th Major, moving only two points behind eternal rivals Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal. The young Russian, who had beaten Nole in three of the last four head-to-head matches (including the last one at last year's ATP Finals), couldn't do anything against a deluxe version of Djokovic. Even before this success, the Belgrade tennis player had already made sure to beat Federer's record by weeks at the top of the ATP rankings. At a press conference, the 18-time Grand Slam champion admitted that - at this stage of his career - the focus is almost exclusively on the four majors.

Djokovic on surpassing Roger Federer

Novak Djokovic has now set his sights on breaking another record held by Roger Federer by copying the Swiss tennis star's tactics of only targeting Grand Slams. "I don't feel like I'm old or tired or anything like that. But I know that, you know, biologically and realistically things are different than they were 10 years ago for me," he said. "I have to be smarter with my schedule and peak at the right time. So the slams are the tournaments where I want to be able to perform my best. Now, after achieving the historic No 1 for the longest weeks at No 1, it's going to be a relief for me becauseI'm going to focus all my attention on slams mostly. When you are going for No 1 rankings, you kind of have to be playing the entire season and you have to be playing well, you have to play all the tournaments. My goals will adapt and will shift a little bit, which means that I will have to adjust also my calendar - not have to,but I will have an opportunity to do that which, as a father and a husband, I'm really looking forward to that. Judging by what we're seeing around the world, having family on the road with me will be a very difficult task, because if I'm going to travel around, I have to take my coaches and everything, and we have rules in place that don't allow really more people than I think two people on the tournaments to travel with you, other than slams. So, yeah, I'll have to wait and see how my schedule is going to look like. I haven't made any commitment actually after Australia. I'm just trying to marvel in this success and enjoy it as much as I can."

from Tennis World USA https://ift.tt/3dHy4yq