The world’s top tennis players generally do not play in the week preceding a Grand Slam event so that they can rest and train on their own.
Yet world No. 1 Novak Djokovic is breaking with that tradition — and with his own history — by playing this week in his home country of Serbia at the Belgrade Open in hopes of peaking at the French Open beginning May 30.
“I’ve been setting up everything to peak in Paris and here it’s about match play and it’s about working on certain specific details in my game that hopefully I’ll be able to tweak them and to make them perfectly tuned in Paris,” Djokovic said ahead of Tuesday’s opening-round match with Germany’s Mats Moraing.
“That’s definitely where I want to shine and it’s a Grand Slam. It’s a two-week long event, it’s clay, it’s very demanding in every aspect. But I’m happy with the way I’ve been feeling on the court and playing, so hopefully I can go all the way there.”
Djokovic will be playing his first Grand Slam event as a newly-minted 34-year-old after his birthday passed on Saturday. He’s now the same age as his top rival, No. 3 Rafael Nadal, who beat the Serb in three sets in the recent Italian Open final.
The victory also earned Nadal a 36th ATP Masters 1000 crown, equaling Djokovic’s record since the series was established in 1990.
“I was pleased with the way I played in Rome, also in the final after five hours spent on the court on Saturday,” Djokovic said. “I came out and played almost three hours with Rafa on Sunday and I felt I could go on physically for a few more hours. That was something that really satisfied me, knowing that I’m fit and ready to battle in best of five, which is coming up in Paris, where I really want to try to play my best tennis.”
Nadal will enter Paris as the favorite to win his record-extending 14th Roland Garros title and record-breaking 21st major title. Roger Federer, who returned last week in Geneva and promptly lost his first match on clay, owns 20 major titles and will also be competing in Paris at the age of 39.
Djokovic will enter Paris with 18 Grand Slam titles, third all-time among men. He is the only active man to beat Nadal at the French Open and the two could be headed for another battle in the City of Lights. Djokovic hasn’t beaten Nadal on clay since the 2016 Rome quarterfinals, but figures to be his biggest threat in Paris.
“I feel strongly that Novak is the only man who can go toe-to-toe pattern-wise and take Rafa down,” tw0-time French Open champion Jim Courier said recently on Tennis Channel.
Djokovic will get in matches this week in hopes of being on point for Roland Garros, where he could potentially win his 19th major after winning his 18th at the Australian Open. If he wins two of the remaining three majors in 2021, there will be three titans with at least 20 majors before the year is over.
“I’m doing more specific fitness that is related to more match play,” he said. “It’s not any more long hours lifting weights and stuff like this. We have obviously a programme that we are respecting and accomplishing on the court with tennis training and also fitness training.
“Obviously now it’s more of a fine-tuning, more [focusing on the] details, [doing] more of certain exercises that activate certain muscles and movements that are necessary for me to have that feeling of being dynamic and being fast and being strong on the court.”
After losing to Aslan Karatsev in the semis at Serbia Open last month, he wnats to win a title on his home soil and head into Paris on a high note.
“It is always very special to play in Serbia,” he said. “It’s quite unusual to have two tournaments so close to each other. I played the Serbia Open a month ago here and now we have another tournament and this tournament came up as a surprise to all of us. I think the success of a nation in tennis depends a lot on the amount of tournaments that are played in that country.”
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