who has amassed $189 million in career earnings<\/a>. It’s just way too long for me. My focus is mostly on the slams, and I have said that before.\u201d<\/p>\nDjokovic said he doesn\u2019t like the fact that the Masters 1000 events are now mostly two-week events. The Canadian Open last 12 days and ended on a Thursday. The Cincinnati Open spanned 14 days, with a final on Monday.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019d like to play more of the other tournaments, but I just, we have currently informally, unofficially, 12 Grand Slams a year, when you think about it,\u201d Djokovic said. “I mean, Grand Slam is two weeks and the other Masters events are almost two weeks, as well.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo yeah, it\u2019s just not any more prioritizing the heavy schedule as I used to. I\u2019m not chasing the rankings or building up my points or defending, etc. I just don’t think about it anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n
Djokovic says he finds himself most \u201cinspired\u201d at the Slams. He reached the semis of all three majors so far this season, losing to Jannik Sinner in the semis at both Roland Garros and Wimbledon in straight sets.<\/p>\n
\u201cSlams are obviously the four main tournaments where I always feel the most motivation,” he said. \u201cI don’t actually have any schedule other than slams, to be honest.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said he\u2019s focused on his family. His daughter, Tara, will celebrate a birthday Sept. 2, and he\u2019s “maybe going to miss out on my daughter\u2019s birthday\u2026if I\u2019m doing well [and]<\/p>\n
I’m still here.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut those are types of things that I really don’t want to be missing anymore. So it’s just on a personal level for me important to be there, to show up, you know, for the people that have been showing up for me for all these years playing tennis.\u201d<\/p>\n
ROME, ITALY – MAY 18: Carlos Alcaraz of Spain poses with the trophy as he celebrates victory alongside runner up Jannik Sinner of Italy following the Men’s Singles Final match on Day Fourteen of the Internazionali BNL D’Italia 2025 at Foro Italico on May 18, 2025 in Rome, Italy. (Photo by Dan Istitene\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n
Getty Images<\/p>\n
Djokovic\u2019s last major title came at the U.S. Open in 2023. Since then, Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz have won the last seven majors and are the favorites to win an eighth in New York.<\/p>\n
Asked what it\u2019s like to see those guys in the draw, world No. 3 Alexander Zverev joked, \u201cIt sucks. It\u2019s terrible.”<\/p>\n
Djokovic called them the \u201cbest” rivalry in tennis.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think their rivalry is amazing,\u201d he said. “What they have done in the previous two years is remarkable for both of these players. Particularly this year the finals that we have seen them play against each other in Roland Garros, Wimbledon, and a few other tournaments, it’s just amazing for our sport.<\/p>\n
\u201cOn a global sport stage, these are the types of encounters and rivalries people get very excited about. When it comes to individual sports like ours or boxing, Formula 1 racing, whatever it is, golf, people love to see rivalries. I think their rivalry is, without a doubt, the best one we have in the moment. And it looks like it\u2019s going to stay like that for some time.\u201d<\/p>\n
He added: “And then you have obviously other young players that are definitely going to challenge them, and hopefully somebody can get in the mix. You know, [Holger] Rune was there, and he kind of goes up and down. [Joao] Fonseca. There are players that are able to have that Djoker spot, the third spot.<\/p>\n
\u201cI kind of empathize with the third guy, because I was in those shoes with Federer and Nadal. I want to see a third guy coming in.\u201d<\/p>\n
Meantime, Patrick McEnroe <\/a>says the Serbian legend might not play that much longer if he believes he can\u2019t beat Sinner and Alcaraz on the biggest stages.<\/p>\n\u201cI think Novak definitely needs some help [to win the U.S. Open],\u201d McEnroe said in response to my question on an ESPN conference call on Wednesday. \u201cI think the bigger question we may be asking ourselves by the time this tournament is done, is, will he come back? Will he be back? Because I have my doubts. I don\u2019t think he knows. I don\u2019t have any inside information. I don\u2019t think he knows, but what I do know is that he\u2019s not going to continue to play if he doesn’t think he can win. And I think time’s running out for him to win.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Novak Djokovic during training ahead of the US Open 2025 tennis tournament in New York USA on 20…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":103610,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[72],"tags":[99,428],"class_list":{"0":"post-103609","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennis","8":"tag-sports","9":"tag-tennis"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103609","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=103609"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103609\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/103610"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=103609"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=103609"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=103609"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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