ROLAND GARROS

May 26, 2024

Novak Djokovic

Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: Questions in English.

Q. Novak, how do you feel mentally considering your results on clay this year?

NOVAK DJOKOVIC: Mentally for the tournament here?

Q. Yes.

NOVAK DJOKOVIC: Okay. Well, low expectations and high hopes (smiling).

Q. Maybe a similar question, but in general this year, you have not played as much as you usually would or had as much success as you used to by this point in the season. Do either of those things affect you coming into this tournament? You sort of touched on this just now, but perhaps could elaborate a little on it. Normally you think of yourself, seems like, as somebody who is a favorite to win any tournament you enter. Do you feel that way coming back here this time?

NOVAK DJOKOVIC: Well, I would say that I know what I'm capable of, and particularly in the Grand Slams I normally play the best tennis, at least I aim always to play the best tennis, and I was most of my career able to do that, so that's the goal.

I have been saying, you know, for quite a while that in terms of clay I want to peak here in Paris, in Roland Garros. Last year I had an amazing year, and particularly here in Roland Garros, and hopefully I can, yeah, have a great tournament.

Of course it does affect me, you know, the five months that I had so far in the year that haven't been great in terms of my tennis. That's why I have, you know, a kind of an approach that is focused on a daily basis more trying to build the form and momentum so that I can have a better chance to reach further in the tournament.

Q. So what have you drawn on during these five months in terms of your experiences? You have experienced just about everything in your career, ups and downs. Are there other periods that you have thought about and sort of where you found your way out of holes that have come to mind and, you know, could potentially provide a road upwards this time?

NOVAK DJOKOVIC: I wouldn't call them holes. They are rather bumps on the road. You know, I have always looked ahead, what is the next challenge, and what it takes for me to be better than I was last week.

So that's the kind of a mindset that I keep nurturing and keep having. So it probably won't stop until I stop playing professional tennis. I mean, that's the only way I know how to, you know, conduct myself as a professional tennis player and also compete at the highest level.

As I previously answered, I know what my qualities are. I know what I'm capable of. And if I, you know, have the right conditions in terms of the way I feel physically, mentally, you know, game-wise, and then of course you need some luck as well on a given day when you're playing matches against, you know, the best players in the world that things come together and you win a slam. I've experienced that 24 times in my career, and many other finals and semifinals.

So I know exactly what I need to do in Grand Slam environment or Grand Slam competition, so to say. It's a whole different type of tournament and feel for the tournament than any other, really, tournaments that we have in the calendar.

So, yeah, that's kind of it.

Q. Novak, you have spoken about how important resilience has been in your career. Can you just mention one or two points in your career where you really felt you were the most resilient and why does that give you particular satisfaction, and what do you need to be so resilient?

NOVAK DJOKOVIC: I mean, resilience is definitely always very much needed in life in general, for anybody. Life throws different challenges at you.

I mean, in this case as a professional tennis player, you have to kind of be more accustomed to losses than wins. You know, if you have a season or two or three or four, whatever, in your career where your winning percentage of the tournaments that you play is more than 50%, you are lucky. Because most of the tournaments you play percentage-wise you are lower than 50% of winning in a year.

So that's what you have to accept and adapt to, the feeling of failing or losing most of the times, that, you know, most of the tournaments where you participate in a year, and then you have to face injuries, you know, et cetera, in a career that is long.

In this instance of my career, I don't know, one major injury, thankfully I didn't have too many major injuries, but one that I had kind of started in 2016 and carried on to '17 where I took six months off. In early '18 I had surgery of my elbow.

That has alternated my biomechanics for the serve, my technique, I had to completely readjust my game, and I dropped the rankings to out of top 20. So then I had to build the rankings and, you know, kind of start over again.

So I have had several of these particular situations in my career where I had to kind of find a fresh start, so to say, and I was managing to do it. In some instances earlier and in some instances a bit later, but I was managing to find the right game, the right mindset.

Yes, so I'll try to use that kind of particular experiences that I had. When it comes to experience, I think I have quite a lot of experience playing on the tour, and experienced really, as you said, highs and lows and ups and downs and various things. So I will try to use that in a positive way, in a positive fashion for this tournament and the rest of the season.

Q. Just on the lower expectations, high hopes things, how low are we talking? When was the last time those expectations were this low going into a major?

NOVAK DJOKOVIC: It's tough to talk about. It's very subjective (smiling). You know, I almost feel a bit embarrassed to say what my expectations are. You know, anything but a title for me is not satisfactory, you know. So it always has been like that. I know, you know, it might sound arrogant to a lot of people, but I think I have the career that backs it up.

In a way, me playing still at this highest level, one of the major reasons is trying to, you know, write more history of the sport and win the biggest titles that, you know, Paris is definitely one of them.

So that's why my hopes and goals are always the same, but I have to lower the expectations. When I say that I mean, you know, maybe not thinking too much ahead in advance in terms of the tournament and who I might face in the later rounds, but really taking it day by day, step by step, and really building my game. Because that's what I have really been struggling with, not really playing in a consistently good level.

So I obviously need that in order to have any chance to go to the final match.

Q. Will you be watching Nadal/Zverev tomorrow? What do you expect from that match?

NOVAK DJOKOVIC: Well, yes. I mean, if I don't have anything smarter to do at that point, I'll definitely watch. I don't know. Are they playing night session? Day session? Well, that will make it a bit more difficult for me, because I have obligations during the day, but I will try to catch as much as I can from that match.

I think everyone will want to see what will happen (smiling).

Q. Just wondering how you feel physically. Because you were struggling in Geneva, and it seems this year it's been a bit up and down. Have you pinned down a reason why you have been struggling to find your peak? Because you're used to find it usually pretty much at this period.

NOVAK DJOKOVIC: Yeah. Well, it's various things that were happening in the last couple of months, but I don't want to get into it. I hope you understand that. It's just I don't want open Pandora Box and talk about things.

Just really try to focus myself on what needs to be done. What has happened, happened, and it's in the past. It's, you know, something that I can't affect anymore, but I can kind of learn to rectify certain things and right the certain things that are wrong and really not serving the purpose of my highest performance level.

So that's what we have been working on as a team, and hopefully it will give us good results here.