A six-month injury hiatus has done little to dampen Novak Djokovic’s passion and desire to succeed on the tour.
The former world No.1 hasn’t played a competitive match since his retirement from the Wimbledon quarter-finals. He ended his season early following a persistent elbow injury that had been hampering him for months. Gradually worsening over that time. The setback occurred during what was a roller coaster season for the Serbian, who won two ATP titles. In a bid to revive his performance, he dismissed three key members of his coaching team. Later replacing one of them with Andre Agassi.
“It’s been a really roller coaster ride for me for a year and a half with this issue. I’ve never had surgery in my life, I’ve never had any major injuries that kept me away from the tour for such a long time. Never missed a Grand Slam in my professional career. It was a big decision, a big call to make,” Djokovic told Sport360.
Instead of being devastated by the misfortunes of 2017, Djokovic maintains his focus on the positives, as well as his long term goals. At the age of 30, he has already claimed 68 ATP titles, including 12 in grand slams and 30 in Masters 1000 tournaments. Furthermore, he has spent a total of 223 weeks as world No.1, the fifth longest reign in history.
If Djokovic wanted to, he could end his career now fully satisfied with his achievements. Yet, the Serbian is far from finished. In an era when rivals such as Roger Federer are playing later into their careers, Djokovic is keeping his eyes on winning the biggest prizes in his sport. With the help of both his family and team.
“I would lie to you and I would not be honest, not to you, to myself, if I tell you anything less than being No. 1 and winning Slams,” he said about his future goals.
“I know that I’ve done it in the past, I’ve proven to myself that I can do it and why not aim for it again? Because I feel that, first of all, I have the willpower. Which is the most important thing. You need to really want something, you need to wish for it, you need really strongly believe and commit to that. So I am.”
The driving force behind Djokovic’s thirst to succeed isn’t due to the money or the prizes involved. It is his own love for the sport that is keeping him going. Emulating that of Federer and Rafael Nadal, who have also said similar words in the past.
“It doesn’t matter the age or not, if you take care of your body, your body’s kind of reversing that age clock and your mind as well, if you have that kind of spirit of a child enjoying what it does then you get energy.”
40 is the new 30
In the past, a long injury hiatus at the age of 30 would be classed as a sign of permanent retirement. Nowadays, it is irrelevant. 50% of players in the year-end top 20 was over the age of 30 with Federer being the oldest at 36. In the top 100, the oldest player is world No.80 Ivo Karlovic at the age of 38.
Djokovic aims to one day become a veteran on the tour. Providing his body holds up, he is open to the possibility of playing for another ten years until the age of 40. Something that few players have achieved during their careers. To achieve that goal, Djokovic can take tips from Federer and carefully plan his scheduling commitments. The Swiss won two grand slam titles this year, but skipped the entire clay court season. Scheduling is one of many things that impacts on an athletes longevity in sport. Another is their mentality. Something Djokovic takes very seriously.
“Yes I do, even older than that actually. I don’t want to put any limit to my career or to anything that I do, really. The limits only exist in the mind and if you set yourself a limit, or say ‘hey, it was a standard before so we have to accept the standard that once you reach that magical number 30 in tennis you’re not anymore at your peak’. Who says that? Jimmy Connors played when he was 40 semis of US Open, Roger is where he is winning Slams at his age. Who says that?” he explained.
Helping Djokovic achieve that goal will be Agassi and newly appointed coach Radek Stepanek. Both of whom played late into their own careers. Agassi retired at the age of 36 and Stepanek called it quits at 38.
“Radek is one of the oldest players to play actively on the tour and there’s definitely a lot of great insights there from him on how you can keep your mind and body sharp and keep that longevity and also Andre’s incredible, smart and wise approach to tennis and to life in general helps me get different perspectives of who I am and what I do and just tennis in general.”
Djokovic will return to action later this week at the Mubadala World Tennis Championship in Abu Dhabi. Following on from that, he will play his first ATP tournament of the new season at the Doha Open in Qatar next week.
