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BARCLAYS DUBAI TENNIS CHAMPIONSHIPS MEN

February 24, 2010

Novak Djokovic

DUBAI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES

N. DJOKOVIC/V. Troicki
3-6, 6-4, 6-2

Q. Would you say that the fight and application were the best qualities you showed in that match?
NOVAK DJOKOVIC: They were not best qualities, definitely. I wasn't happy with the performance overall today. But I won, that's what matters. He was a better player for a set and a half.
Quite different conditions, really. I think this is one of the rare tournaments that you really feel big, big difference between the day match and night match. The balls go really much faster, and as soon as the shade came on the court, you know, I felt more control over my game. So in the end, I managed to win.

Q. You looked short of energy in the first set.
NOVAK DJOKOVIC: It's not short of energy. It's just, you know, it's just feeling uncomfortable and not confident on the court in the first set. And he used it. He served really well. He put a lot of pressure on me. He was very patient.
I made four winners on unforced errors myself. Unfortunately, in the first set and a half there were more unforced errors than winners. But I managed to come back, and that's positive of the match.

Q. Did you enjoy that challenge of the conditions?
NOVAK DJOKOVIC: No, definitely not (smiling).

Q. How much are you below --
NOVAK DJOKOVIC: We have enough challenges in our life (smiling).

Q. I was just going to say how much are you below your best form, your desirable peak?
NOVAK DJOKOVIC: I mean, I don't know. It's day-to-day basis really, more or less. I mean, I know I can play well. I know I can challenge any player in the world. It's just, as I said, it's a matter of feeling on a certain day against a certain opponent.
Today that was not the case. But, again, you've got to fight. I won many matches in my life just hanging in there and trying to put up a win, and that's what I did.

Q. When you look at the schedule this time of year, you were saying the other day you're going indoors, outdoors, indoors. Next week you're going indoors on clay for Davis Cup. Do you think is the sport any nearer to resolving the problem of how to fit the Davis Cup in the calendar?
NOVAK DJOKOVIC: That's a very sensitive question. We can talk about it after tomorrow, you know. It's a big subject. It's something that schedule is our main issue. We are, as I was saying before, in the Players Council and ATP in general, we're all working together towards some better solutions in the future.
But as you can see, this is the way it is. I mean, I cannot say I have the toughest schedule because more or less everybody, the top players, have this kind of schedule.
So, you know, you just have to accept it the way it is even though it's crazy, you know. Changing after one day indoors, outdoors, different surfaces, you know. You can easily get injured. And then couple months pass by without you playing the tournaments and from No. 2 of the world you go to No. 15. And then what happens, you know? You start to lose a lot of things. People don't pay attention to you anymore.
But this is the cruelty, you know, this is the reality of today's world. It's just the way it is.

Q. Some of the top players take the option of not playing, but you don't see that as an option for yourself?
NOVAK DJOKOVIC: Not playing what?

Q. Davis Cup.
NOVAK DJOKOVIC: I mean, look, Davis Cup is a competition that I still want to prove with my team that we can be one of the best teams in the world. And I think we have a team that can challenge anybody on any surfaces. It's just a special competition, you know.
I mean, I haven't played in the last three or four years, I haven't played three or four matches of Davis Cup, three, four ties in a year. I just played one or two. So it's not like Davis Cup is a big problem.
This year I really want to win at least the first round so we don't need to play the playoffs anymore. So you play for a country and it's a special feeling, you know. We're individuals. We play for ourselves and we present our names, you know, ourselves in the first place. And never, you know -- this is the first time we're playing the team to feel the spirit. It's a unique competition, really.

Q. Winning a tournament like this, which is sort of stuck in between a Grand Slam and two Masters Series in America, how important is that to win it?
NOVAK DJOKOVIC: Well, confidence-wise any tournament you win it's a boost. It's a credit that you have to take, and I will try to do it.
Last year winning Dubai helped me a lot to regain my confidence. And after that I had an amazing summer season on clay. So I will try to do the same.

Q. Yet another Top 10 player has been removed from your path today. There are very few of you left now, so your chances must be quite favorable?
NOVAK DJOKOVIC: Well, look, as I said, it's not easy. I mean, everybody expects top seeds to go through the quarters, semis with no problems. But you know it's always difficult to play in opening rounds against somebody who went through qualifying or been a couple of days more than you here and has nothing to lose. You know, it can happen.
If I play my best I like my chances here, so let's see what's going to happen.

End of FastScripts

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