Novak Djokovic may 'never recover' as Serb shares honest feelings ahead of US Open
Novak Djokovic is the defending champion at the US Open.
Novak Djokovic has claimed that he never wants to “recover” after achieving one of his biggest career goals by winning an Olympic gold medal earlier this month.
The world No. 2 is seeking his first Grand Slam title of the year at the US Open - his last chance to win a Major trophy in 2024.
Djokovic has not played since the Paris 2024 Games, opting to miss the pre-US Open warm-up events. Ahead of his first match in Flushing Meadows, Djokovic shed light on his feelings after his Olympics glory.
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“I hope to never recover from that [Olympic triumph], because it's the best set of feelings that I ever had as an athlete,” the 24-time Grand Slam champion told Eurosport. “On the court but also off, when we went back to celebrate with our people, all of the Serbian Olympians that managed to win a medal.”
The Olympic gold medal was Djokovic’s first title win of the 2024 season. And he’s hoping that it’s the boost he needs coming into the last Grand Slam of the year. He continued: “It was a very unique moment for me.
“I'll never forget it and I'll try to use it as a great confidence boost for what's coming up in New York in the next few weeks.”
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The 37-year-old has not played a match since he beat Carlos Alcaraz in two tiebreak sets to win the Olympics earlier this summer. He chose to withdraw from Masters 1000 events in Canada and Cincinnati and comes into the US Open with no matches on the North American hard courts.
Explaining his decision, Djokovic added: “I haven't had much time to recover or much time to train. I tried to get the most out of the few weeks that I had. I had more than all the other guys that played the tournaments.
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“But that was a conscious decision that I made not to have any lead-up tournaments to the US Open because I just felt that the calendar is too congested this year with the Olympics. I needed my break, short but sweet, celebration, family quality time and then of course started my training and trying to build my body, build my form for the start of the tournament.”
Djokovic is the reigning champion at the US Open, where he won a record-breaking 24th Grand Slam title last year. He begins his title defence against Radu Albot in the night session on Monday.
