LAVER CUP

September 25, 2022

Novak Djokovic

Press Conference

F. AUGER-ALIASSIME/N. Djokovic

6-3, 7-6

Team Europe - 8

Team World - 10

THE MODERATOR: Welcome to the press conference of Novak Djokovic.

Questions.

Q. You were obviously holding your arm a little bit. Were you a little sore after yesterday?

NOVAK DJOKOVIC: Yes, I was. I have been struggling with my right wrist for the last four, five days, to be honest. I have been keeping it under control.

The two matches yesterday probably had an effect. Today was not easy. I couldn't serve as fast or as accurately as I would like to. That has affected the whole game. He was serving extremely well.

Of course I'm not taking anything away from his performance. It was outstanding, big serving, and very solid from back of the court.

You know, he deserved to win, no doubt.

Q. One of the things that's been quite nice to see during this tournament is top players happily taking advice from other top players. There's been no egos. People offering it and people have been accepting it. Roger has been very involved with that. If he was to perhaps pick someone and be a coach, what do you think he would obviously be able to sort of give to that person that perhaps other people could or couldn't?

NOVAK DJOKOVIC: I mean, it is really a unique experience of having always someone in your ear nearly every changeover, and that someone is obviously your greatest rivals. It's very interesting to get insights of how they see the game and how they read a game, and they can give you some tips of their observations that could help.

Really, that's how I see it and accept it and I embrace it on the court. I think it's a very different experience to what we normally have on the tour. You know, my team was on the stadium but far. I have my teammates coming so close and having that kind of discussion about, you know, tactics, is really different. I enjoy it. I really do.

I think that Roger can offer a lot (smiling). I mean, you know, it's logical to expect him to be able to share so many useful and valuable things with anybody, really. I mean, if he ever would consider doing that, I'm sure that he's going to bring a lot of positive things to the improvement of that player, whether male or female, in every aspect on and off the court, I'm sure.

He's undoubtedly one of the greatest players to play the game the way he played it, with his style and effortlessly. You know, people probably think that he was a god-given talent, but he always talks about the amount of time that he would have to spend working on perfecting the game so it looks easy.

I respect that, and I know what he has to go through in order to execute the shots that seem easy but are actually very difficult to do.

So, yeah, I think he has the full package, for sure. I don't know. You have to ask him whether he wants to be involved in some shape or form in that role.

Q. Have you worked out your schedule now for the rest of the calendar year? Do you think Turin is a feasible possibility? I know you had the ranking points and everything with Wimbledon. Is that feasible this year?

NOVAK DJOKOVIC: Yes, well, the goal is to try to make the Turin. I'm in a good position, but, you know, still I think 15 or 16 on the race. You've got to be top 20 as a Grand Slam winner. That's the rule in order to make cut and qualify for Turin.

I will play Tel Aviv next week and play a 500 in Kazakhstan, and then the schedule was to play Bercy and Turin. So let's see if it stays this way or something changes.

But, you know, my thoughts are obviously the next few weeks and then I will take it from there.

Q. Novak, just getting back to the discomfort you were feeling, how much of that do you think is put down to the two matches or the fact that this is the first time you're playing actual matches? Is it a combination? And was it the other wrist that you had issues with just recently?

NOVAK DJOKOVIC: Yes, it was the other wrist that I had issues with but not recently. I had issues with that wrist years ago I think in Rio Olympics and I can't recall what was the other time.

I think it's a combination of the two, answering to your first question. Could be not playing almost three months matches, and then conditions here are such that the balls are really big and slow.

When you use them quite a bit, you know, they kind of sit on the court. So you always have to generate a lot of wrist action and speed, which, you know, could be the case why I have been feeling soreness of my right wrist in the last four days that I have been training and playing here.

But I think it's also the two matches that I played last night that I was excited and I played great, looked very sharp, felt great on the court, but then maybe lack of matches also is something that I felt today.