4. The Calendar slam
On course for a career grand slam for the second time in his career, where a player holds all four major titles at the same time, but not in the same year, Djokovic is aiming for a calendar grand slam. Something he describes as the ‘ultimate challenge of tennis.’ In history, the milestone has only been achieved six times – Don Budge, Maureen Connolly, Rod Laver (twice), Margaret Court and Steffi Graf.
“I got to get Rod Laver in my team in order to achieve that.” Djokovic joked. “He’s the only one that has managed to do the impossible challenge, probably the ultimate challenge of the tennis.”
While the prospect of achieving the rare milestone is certainly not off the cards, Djokovic admits that he needs to continue working on certain areas. Particularly when it comes to the clay, where his only major success on the surface occurred at the 2016 French Open.
“Obviously I have to work on my game, my clay court game, a bit more, more specifically than I have in the last season. I need to play better than I had last season. I am already playing better.” He stated.
“Clay specifically in order to have a chance and shot at the title. The ultimate challenge there is to win against Nadal. Then you have Thiem and Zverev, Roger is probably going to play. You have a lot of great players that on clay can challenge me or anybody else.”
