It has been almost five years since Novak Djokovic ended his title drought at the French Open but he admits the achievement affected him in a way he never expected.
In 2016 the Serbian battled to the title after defeating Andy Murray in four sets in the final. Somebody who he had a practice session with in Rome earlier this week. The achievement made Djokovic only the third man in history to hold all four Grand Slam titles at the same time after Rod Laver and Ron Budge. His victory was even sweeter after losing in the French Open final in three out of four years prior to his win.
“I had plenty of motivation trying to win Roland Garros, to kind of reach that milestone of winning all four slams,” he said following his win over Taylor Fritz in Rome on Tuesday. “I came up short two, three times, losing in the finals, in some long, big, tough matches against Nadal particularly, and against Wawrinka in 2015.’
“I held all four slams, I had many finals in a row. I had definitely the best 15 months of my career. Those were the pinnacle moments in my career in terms of results, in how I felt on the court and how well I played,” he added.
After claiming a trophy which has eluded him for so long, the world no.1 admits that he found himself in a situation which he had never previously experienced. Suddenly he was facing a motivation crisis which turned out to be the biggest in his career.
“When I finally reached it, I felt a huge joy, content and relief, but at the same time also exhaustion,” he explained. “It took a lot out of me. I kind of for a year and a half had to recover in terms of emotions. I had an elbow issue and everything. I felt that I basically got back on track in 2018.”
Djokovic, who has won 18 Grand Slam titles so far in his career, is yet to win another French Open title. Although he finished runner-up last season to Nadal who has won the tournament a record 13 times. Overall, he has a win-loss record of 74-15 at the event which works out to be a 83% winning rate.
It is not the first time a player has experienced motivation issues after achieving one of their career goals. More recently Dominic Thiem admitted that he found himself in a ‘hole’ after chasing after Grand Slam glory for 15 years. The Austrian won the US Open last year by defeating Alexander Zverev in the final. Thiem has also been open about his struggles with playing on the Tour during the ongoing pandemic.
“I don’t know what exactly is the case of Dominic, why he felt that way. But I can relate,” said Djokovic.
‘These kinds of circumstances that we are living right now in the world are different from back five years when I was experiencing that period or maybe the crisis of motivation a bit.’
“For me it was a completely different situation in terms of achieving everything, but then realizing that all that I have achieved professionally doesn’t necessarily guarantee me to have the time that I want with the close ones, the time for myself for some other things that I would like to enjoy in life. I had to really sacrifice everything to get to that point, and I did.”
The fire is back in Djokovic’s game as he aims to break the all-time record for most Grand Slam titles won by a male player. A milestone currently jointly held by rivals Nadal and Roger Federer.
