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CHINA OPENOctober 3, 2013Novak DjokovicBEIJING, CHINA N. DJOKOVIC/F. Verdasco THE MODERATOR: Questions in English, please. Q. Yesterday Nadal told us the balls are a little bit heavy here. Do you feel the same? Does it make it difficult to hit winners? I don't know. NOVAK DJOKOVIC: Well, the conditions are quite slow considering. You have to be ready to get always one ball back from the opposite side of the court. But I like the conditions here. I mean, I won three titles and I enjoy playing. Q. Can you please tell us what happened at the 2‑4 in the first set and a little in the second set? NOVAK DJOKOVIC: Lack of concentration from my side. I had some chances in the start of the second set, and I managed to allow him to come back to the match and start playing well. But, again, the important thing is that in the third set I regained the focus and the patience also, decreased the unforced errors, and managed to get a win, which is what counts in the end. Q. Thoughts on the No. 1 ranking? Do you think about it too much? Especially because Rafa, he doesn't have anything to defend here. NOVAK DJOKOVIC: No, I mean, I try to do what I need to do, and that is to win the matches. Rankings will change. They change all the time. Over the years it has been the case. But you can't think too much about it. Your job is to win as many matches as possible and the rankings will follow the results that you make. Q. Talking about the award you won after the match, have you ever thought about it, that they were gonna give you that award? NOVAK DJOKOVIC: What was your question? Sorry. Q. After the match you were presented that award. NOVAK DJOKOVIC: Yes. Q. I just asked your opinion about this. NOVAK DJOKOVIC: I think it's a commitment award, so I appreciate it very much, because I really like playing in China Open. I enjoy my time here. I have a lot support. It's really flattering knowing that the tournament respects my commitment. That's something that gives me nice sensations. Q. Two days ago we received a statement from Viktor Troicki, from his agent, I don't know, saying you have been the first one to sign a petition about a new rules for the doping process. Can you say if it's right and can you tell us more details about the protocols about that? NOVAK DJOKOVIC: Well, the whole case around Viktor is just very unfair towards him. I believe that he's innocent. He hasn't been charged for being positive on any kind of substance. He was just accused of failing to provide the blood test that day. You know, I know him since I was eight years old. We grew up together. He's one of my best friends. There is no doubt in my mind that he's innocent. I supported him from the first moment. I think that knowing that now it's coming up, the date, 9th of October he has an appeal in Lausanne. I hope that he's going to be discharged and he's going to be able to play, because he's definitely not guilty. What happened in that room on this day, for me, it's very clear that he is supposed to play. That's it. I leave the authorities to deal with that, but I'm confident that he's going to come back on the tour, hopefully already in the next couple weeks, and he's going to be with us in Davis Cup final, because we wish him that. I don't see why they're keeping him suspended. For what? For failing to provide the blood test? He asked the lady that day, you know, he's not feeling well. Can I provide you tomorrow? She said, Yes, if you write report. He wrote the report, and the next thing you know she's failing to say the truth in the court in London. She was saying that he was convincing him, that it took her 20 minutes to walk from anti‑doping office to the ATP office in Monte‑Carlo tournament, which is 20 meters. So she was lying a lot. That's very bad for our sport. That's very bad for anti‑doping agency, you know, to have people who are responsible for this work to fail to say what really happened that day. There was another person present in the room that day that wrote a perfect English on the report, and then in the court in London he didn't understand a single word. So the reason why I was the first one to write a petition for the rule change is to try to spread the awareness to the people around that obviously there is‑‑ it all comes down to who said what and who believes in who, you know what I mean? It's just not fair towards the players, because there has to be I guess technology or a camera or an additional person in the room while you're doing the test, because then ‑‑ the player has no really rights. Maybe he's trying get as much proof that he can, but in the end it's his word against the word of the people who are authorized. Q. Is it true you wrote some testimony for Viktor? NOVAK DJOKOVIC: Yeah, I wrote a support, that I know him for a long time and that I support him in this case. The way it looks to me is that there is I guess something more than just a simple case. I guess there is a little bit more politics involved. It's unfortunate that it all comes down to Viktor's case, because it shouldn't be like that. He's not positive on anything and he's absolutely innocent. In the end of the day, I really hope he's going to come back. THE MODERATOR: Chinese questions, please. Q. This time you also participated in two men's doubles and you are in the singles quarterfinal. In next couple of days you have to play both singles and doubles. How are you supposed to allocate your physical energies? NOVAK DJOKOVIC: Well, I'm going to play my quarterfinals in singles tomorrow. That's what I will focus on. Unfortunately we pulled out from doubles. Wawrinka is not able to play semifinals here, so he will be on his way to Shanghai. But I enjoyed very much playing doubles with him, and I hope that we'll play soon again. Q. My question is, you lose your concentration in the second set and that's why you lost the second set. It's rare in your match, especially for the Grand Slam. You have very stable performance in the first several rounds. Is it because you are playing men's doubles and it has taken some energy or your opponent has diverted too much energy from you? NOVAK DJOKOVIC: No, I don't feel that I'm exhausted. I feel that energy‑wise and physically I'm fit. I've been in situations before where I played singles and doubles in the same tournament. It didn't affect me. It actually I think helped me a lot with the serve and returning and the positive energy and stimulation that you feel when you're sharing the court with somebody. I played doubles in only one tournament in last 15 months, so for me it was very exciting to be part of doubles tournament here. But the drop of concentration today in the second set has nothing to do with that. It's absolutely normal to expect that you have matches where you can't be always at your 100%. It's sport and we are all people. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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