Despite the several tournaments he had to miss due to his unvaccinated status, such as the Australian Open, Indian Wells, Miami, Canada, Cincinnati and the US Open, it was by no means a wasted 2022 for Novak Djokovic. The Serbian champion bagged his 21st career Grand Sslam at Wimbledon by beating Nick Kyrgios in four sets in the final.
He also claimed his 38th Masters 1000 by winning the Internazionali d’Italia, while in October, within a week, he first won the 250 in Tel Aviv and then the 500 in Astana. Now the Serbian will try to close the season trying to win the Paris Masters for the seventh time and the Finals for the sixth time.
For his part, Novak Djokovic, in an interview collected by the Serbian media Sportal, spoke of his 2022, which as we said he has had ups and downs for not being vaccinated against Covid-19. “It’s been a very interesting and special year,” said the former world number one, “I always try to make the best of every experience, it’s part of my character and my approach to life.
I know that everything that happened in Australia and the way people treated me didn’t sit well with me and it’s something I’ve never experienced in my life. It helped me learn some valuable lessons, lessons about myself, about life and about how I should move forward in this world, especially in the tennis ecosystem.”
The Belgrade-born champion complained about the treatment he received from some people during this tennis year. “A lot of masks fell off, so to speak; during this process, it was interesting for me to watch the way some people behaved towards me this year.
I keep going, motivated and inspired. I love this sport, I love giving it my all in every training session because every day is different and there is always an emotion, an unknown, a challenge. The youngsters are growing up, they are hungry for success, so that also gives me extra motivation.”
Nole Djokovic wants to win again
The next target for Novak Djokovic is the Paris Masters, where he will aim to defend his title. “Alcaraz is the first in the world and he is the best,” Djokovic said. “There’s nothing there.
The rankings show that. I played less, that’s a fact, a lot of points were taken away, Wimbledon didn’t count. Maybe the situation would have been different if the circumstances were different, but there is nothing now.
What is there is, he absolutely deserves to be where he is. I congratulate him on all his successes. I think it’s great for tennis that such a young guy records such historic results because it attracts a lot of new attention and fresh blood to tennis so we all benefit from that.
I’m sure that Nadal will also try to dethrone him at the end of this year because he has the only chance to do it,” he said.
