Melbourne [Australia], January 10 (ANI): Serbian tennis icon Novak Djokovic revealed that he is not yet ready to hang up his boots, despite his father trying to retire him for a while. The 24-time Grand Slam champion also revealed when he feels it would be the right time to “call it a day”.
Djokovic will be participating in the Australian Open Grand Slam event, where he will be trying to tick three boxes, secure a record-extending 11th Australian Open title, unlock his record-breaking 25th grand slam title, the most by any player across men’s and women’s categories and finally, hit a century of ATP Tour level titles.
His first-round opponent will be USA’s Nishesh Basavareddy on Sunday.
Speaking to GQ Magazine as quoted by Sydney Morning Herald, Djokovic said, “My dad is trying to retire me for a while now … He is like, ‘What else do you want to do?’ He understands the amount and the intensity of the pressure and tension that is out there, and the stress that has an effect on my health, my body, and then, consequently, on everyone else who is around me, including him. So that is why he was like, ‘My son, start to think about how you want to end this’.”
“I do think about more how than when. When I am not thinking about it as of yet so intensely. How, how I would like to end it? I feel if I start to lose more and feel like there is a bigger gap, that I start to have more challenges in overcoming those big obstacles in big slams, then I will probably call it a day. But right now I am still OK, keep continuing,” he added.
The 37-year-old is one of the most decorated names in tennis history, with the most grand slams by a men’s player, the joint-highest number of grand slams won by any player, and a Career Golden Slam to his name after he secured the Olympic gold medal in Paris following a win over Carlos Alcaraz.
Djokovic has been a 10-time Australian Open champion, three-time French Open champion, a seven-time Wimbledon champion and a four-time US Open champion. He has also won seven ATP Finals titles and two Olympic medals, including a singles bronze at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
His last ATP tour-level title win came in the ATP Paris Masters event in November 2023 while his last Grand Slam win was the US Open title against Daniil Medvedev in September that year.
Djokovic recently took part in the Brisbane International, losing to Reilly Opelka in the quarterfinals. He will be teaming up with tennis icon and former rival Andy Murray as a coach-player duo for this tournament. (ANI)
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