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World No. 1 Novak Djokovic has said that he understands why Dominic Thiem lost a bit of spark after finally claiming his maiden Grand Slam title. Thiem, ranked at No. 4 in the world, recovered from two sets down in last year's US Open final to beat Alexander Zverev and lift his maiden Grand Slam title.
Recently, Thiem opened about struggling to motivate himself after winning the US Open. After finally winning his first French Open title in 2016, Djokovic was struggling to motivate himself. "I don't know what exactly is the case of Dominic, why he felt that way.
But I can relate. I mean, I understand. Obviously these kind of circumstances that we are living right now in the world are different from back five years when I was experiencing that period or maybe the crisis of motivation a bit," Djokovic said.
"For me it was a completely different situation in terms of achieving everything, but then realizing that all that I have achieved professionally doesn't necessarily guarantee me to have the time that I want with the close ones, the time for myself for some other things that I would like to enjoy in life.
I had to really sacrifice everything to get to that point, and I did."
Djokovic managed to get back his motivation
"Then after that, as any other human being, I felt a need to devote myself to certain other things, to family and some other projects, other things, maybe cool off the steam a little bit.
When you are on a roll and constantly playing on the road more or less every week, if you're winning a lot, that obviously gives you the confidence and you feel like you're flying mentally, you're pumped, but at the same time when everything ends and you reach that goal, you just feel like deflated balloon in a way.
You just feel like you have to recharge," Djokovic continued. "You have to reset very quickly, which happens all the time in tennis schedule, you have to go for a tournament in a week or two time, that wasn't enough. For me it wasn't enough.
That's why it took a bit more time. I was just finding that balance between the court and private life. After a while I found it. "It's all a journey. It's all a process of realizing what is best for you."