Novak Djokovic feels ‘motivated’ ahead of potentially winning the calendar grand slam at the US Open.
The world number one is on the brink of achieving history by becoming the second player in history to win the calendar grand slam.
Should Djokovic lift the trophy on the 12th of September he would join Rod Laver as the only two players to have achieved the feat.
Ahead of the Serb’s chance at achieving history Djokovic told the press that he feels motivated at a once in a lifetime moment, “I think it’s an easy question, yes, it would be,” Djokovic said in response to if this would be the greatest achievement of his career.
“Obviously I know how big of an opportunity is in front of me here in New York where historically I’ve played really well over the years. It’s probably the most entertaining tennis court that we have. Crowd will be back [in the] stadium.
“I can’t wait. Honestly, I’m very motivated to play my best tennis. But I have to hit one ball at a time, as they say, try to be in the moment, have a guiding star in a way, a dream to win a slam here which would obviously complete the calendar slam. I’m hugely inspired and motivated by that, no doubt.”
Also on media day Djokovic spoke about the weird feeling of competing without Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer there to challenge him.
Both Nadal and Federer ended their seasons early due to injuries which leaves Djokovic to go ahead of them in the grand slam statistics should he be triumphant in New York.
“My participation here, without Rafa and Roger participating, I feel it,” Djokovic was quoted as saying by tennishead.
“I know there’s a lot of people who are going to be watching my matches and expecting me to do well and fight for a slam. At the same time, regardless of Roger’s and Rafa’s absence, you still have tremendous quality tennis players that are probably right now on a hot streak, like (Alexander) Zverev, (Daniil) Medvedev, (Stefanos) Tsitsipas. Those are the three top contenders I see for the title.
“But a Grand Slam is a Grand Slam. It’s a two-week-long event, best-of-five, and anything can happen.”
Djokovic’s first match will be against Danish qualifier Holger Rune, who is currently on a 13 match winning streak having won two clay-court challenger titles.
The match will take place on Tuesday.
