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AUSTRALIAN OPEN

January 26, 2020

Novak Djokovic

Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

N. DJOKOVIC/D. Schwartzman

6-3, 6-4, 6-4

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. You're through to your 11th quarterfinal here. How does it feel?
NOVAK DJOKOVIC: It feels great. I had a fantastic couple of matches in a row, center court, last two rounds. I felt more confident going through the ball, hitting serves really well.

Today was a good test because Diego was in form, he hasn't dropped a set in three rounds. Obviously he can be a very dangerous opponent from the baseline if you give him time. I knew that. I stepped out on the court with a clear game plan what I need to do. I think I kept things pretty much in control in all three sets. Maybe could have finished the match a bit earlier.

But, you know, all in all, it was a very solid performance.

Q. You mentioned your children, how they're playing tennis. What is the dynamic there? How good is your son? Are you their favorite player?
NOVAK DJOKOVIC: There is no dynamic. It's very spontaneous. As I said on the court, there is really no rules in terms of them needing to play tennis or any other sport. It's just whether there is a desire or a passion or love for them to do that. If there is, then we do it.

I like them to be active. They are active. They're trying different things. My son likes martial arts, football and tennis. But he likes to play with me and with his best friend. He doesn't like to play with too many other people.

Obviously when they travel with me, he gets more opportunities, I guess, to play tennis. We do play some side courts or practice courts. We've done that in the past. Just to see him smiling on the tennis court, that's all I need to see.

Obviously I'd like them to enjoy whatever they want to do.

Q. And his favorite player?
NOVAK DJOKOVIC: He still hasn't expressed who his favorite player is. I hope I'll be working on becoming his favorite player.

Q. Isner and Karlovic and Raonic, how would you differentiate playing against their serves?
NOVAK DJOKOVIC: Well, I feel like Raonic moves better than Isner and Karlovic. I mean, he's not as tall as these two guys. They're 6'10" or something, 2 meters 10. They're the tallest players to ever play tennis sport.

Obviously it's a huge advantage when you hit serves from that height. You can hit any angle, anything you really want. That puts a lot of pressure on your opponent.

But, of course, that also has some disadvantages in terms of movement. If the returner gets the ball back in play, then I think Raonic is better than these two guys.

But I feel like maybe you could read his serve better than Isner and Karlovic. I don't want to say it's slightly slower, but just a little bit of a different toss, different technique. You can probably get some looks at second serves or breakpoints and stuff like this maybe a bit more than the other two guys.

Again, it's such a minor difference that you don't really notice it so much. But on the court it makes a big difference.

Q. You talked about the massive popularity, the impact on the popularity of tennis in Serbia that you've had, how much it's impacted people, made them want to play tennis. Is it vital for you to have a big superstar in a country to develop the interest of tennis and the passion of tennis?
NOVAK DJOKOVIC: It obviously helps when you have a success on a global level. Of course, it has a very positive impact in your country. Serbia didn't really have a successful or long tennis tradition, before Bobo Zivojinovic and Monica Seles. That was probably the first generation of successful tennis players coming from our country.

Then really all of a sudden, I don't believe in coincidences in life, but it looked very much like a coincidence because there was no system or structure that kind of supported our breakthrough to professional tennis, but in one moment we had three No. 1's of the world beside myself: Ana Ivanovic, Jelena Jankovic on the women's side, and four actually, doubles, Nenad Zimonjic, as well. Janko Tipsarevic, top 10.

I mean, it was an amazing decade for our tennis. That has obviously helped popularity of that sport in our country. There was a lot of interest, a lot of young people choosing to grab a tennis racquet.

The problem that we have is still the infrastructure, but it's also the system that hasn't really followed the success as well as it should have. I do consider myself also responsible to try to do something when I'm not playing. Through the tennis club that we are running in Belgrade, through my free time, I try to help federation and anybody really that likes tennis, is in tennis, to establish some system that will be a long-standing kind of long-term system that will allow kids and parents to have an easier access to tennis, cheaper access to tennis, racquets, tennis courts, things like this.

For an average income, for an average family in Serbia, it's really expensive to play tennis. That's the reality. They will most likely choose, if it comes down to economics, basketball or football or handball or volleyball. Those are really successful sports in our country.

We've been a nation of team sports. It's really nice to see an individual sport kind of sparking the interest of youth and of people in general.

They do follow it of course a lot on the TV and everything. I still feel like there is quite a bit of a gap. We still have a lot of work to do to get actually on the grassroot level more players.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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