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Over the past decade, Novak Djokovic has been the most dominant player on the men's circuit. In particular, the Serbian phenomenon was able to carve out a leading role in the era of Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal. Despite not having played much at the start of 2021, the 33-year-old from Belgrade has posted the ninth Australian Open and has narrowed the gap that separates him from eternal rivals in the all-time Grand Slam standings to just two lengths.
At the beginning of March, Nole also broke the record for weeks at the top of the ATP ranking, facilitated by the new ranking system introduced to mitigate the effects of the pandemic. An abdominal injury prevented Djokovic from competing in other tournaments after Melbourne, but now the number 1 ATP is ready to make his return to Monte Carlo.
In an interview released shortly before his debut in the Principality, Novak described his feelings after writing another very important page in the history of this sport.
Novak Djokovic was happy to receive support for his achievement
Recently, Novak Djokovic broke yet another milestone.
He surpassed his arch-rival Roger Federer in holding the number one ranking in the game for the most number of weeks by any player. He even considered this feat as one of his greatest achievements in his career so far. The recently crowned Australian Open champion stated, “The historic achievement was of course very fulfilling for me, for my family.
It’s probably the biggest achievement I’ve had in my career. It’s an accumulation of all the years of success and hard work… I was very happy to be able to stay close to my family and share the joy with them”.
The 33-year-old further added, “Even though the restrictions were such that we couldn’t make maybe more of the celebrations… But nevertheless, a lot of people showed up on the streets and at one point it was also a bit uncomfortable being in such a crowd.
I’m very thankful to the city of Belgrade and the country of Serbia for creating special events during that day to acknowledge the success. It was definitely a very special day that will stay forever in my heart”.
Djokovic will be playing in the city of his residence - Monaco - this week. But the 33-year-old believes the 2021 Monte Carlo Masters would be 'completely different' from earlier editions, mainly due to the absence of fans.
"It will certainly be different, it will not be the way it is when the audience is present," Djokovic told Serbian media ahead of the start of the tournament. "You will be able to notice many changes yourself. There are usually a lot of courts, and now they have been turned into a sports village and there is not that much space.
It is better for training because there are no fans, there are only people from sponsoring companies."
