Novak Djokovic will start again at the ATP 500 in Dubai. After a sensational start to the season, in which he won the Adelaide 250 and especially his 10th title at the Australian Open, the Serbian star is ready to jump back on track.
In the morning the table was revealed, which revealed all the cards and established the path that awaits each athlete during the next week. The path of the Serb, who will obviously be the number one seed, will not be easy. Several top players will be present at the UAE tournament, from Andrey Rublev to Felix Auger-Aliassime, including Daniil Medvedev, once again in the top 10 after his excellent performances in Rotterdam and Doha (where he will play the final against eternal Andy Murray).
The 22-time Grand Slam champion appears to have finally recovered from the hamstring injury that had kept him on edge during the “Happy Slam” run. As he himself acknowledged at the press conference held a few days ago in Belgrade, now everything is past.
First Dubai and then, presumably, Indian Wells and Miami, in case the US government lifts the ban, which currently does not allow unvaccinated players to enter. The two prestigious American tournaments belonging to the Masters 1000 category, also nicknamed the Double of the Sun, located respectively in California and Florida, will provide important points for the continuation of the season.
The number one, waiting to meet his first rival, who will come out of the qualifying phase, appeared smiling and in a good mood in a video in which he is seen celebrating “Cristiano Ronaldo” style during a game played with children from beach soccer, on the beautiful beaches of Dubai.
Nole Djokovic won the 2023 AO
Arriving in Dubai where he knows his potential career, Novak Djokovic confided in the media The National News for quite a long time. He spoke in particular about his run at the Grand Slams with his “biggest rival”, Rafael Nadal.
The two legends have, since the Australian Open and the last coronation of the Serb, 22 titles each. “If I finish tied with Nadal? I would be satisfied. I would like to have more Grand Slams than my biggest rival, but listen, when I have to stop and go back to my career story, even if I stopped here and he still won 10 Grand Slams, I should still be overall satisfied.
Maybe there will be a small part of me that will regret not having had more than him, but in the end, how many titles are enough? You have to have the competitive spirit, you have to have that ferocity, the mental approach of a wolf in a way, to be hungry and hungry, because that’s what drives you, at least in my case.
But at the same time, there is also time to put things in perspective and to say to yourself, ok ‘wow, we have done a lot of things’, you have to be proud, you have to be grateful for all these things, to be humble“, explained Nole.
