©”DAILY TENNIS NEWS WIRE”
Australian Open champion Novak Djokovic found sleep hard to come by when he finally got to bed just before 8am following his marathon five hours and 53 minutes victory over Rafael Nadal. Many things were racing around the world no.1’s mind but most importantly the need to conserve his energies for the massive encounters to come in 2012.
Djokovic is already prioritizing the French Open to complete his collection of major titles and keep the hopes of a first true Grand Slam in men’s tennis since Rod Laver, the man who handed him the trophy at Melbourne Park, last completed the historic feat in 1969.
“A true grand slam is definitely the highest that you can ask from yourself but I think a person should always believe,” said Djokovic who is taking a long hard look at his schedule and commitments for upcoming months.
“I have experienced some incredible heights in the last 18 months so I have the confidence. I am at the peak of my career, playing the best of my life, and that gives me reason to believe I can go to the finals this year. I’m thinking about it, there’s no secret about that.”
Djokovic will not play in the Davis Cup for Serbia against Sweden next week in Nis and has to make sure he composes a schedule that works as well for him as possible. He calls it his “wave strategy”.
“Last year we made very good decisions with scheduling, to have waves starting in Australia and then some time to relax, playing Indian Wells and Miami and then the clay courts, and we need to do a similar plan this year,” said the 24 year-old.
“It’s going to be difficult to decide which tournaments I’m going to have to sacrifice. I will have to do it because I cannot play everything and right now I’m skipping Davis Cup. I’ll have to sit down with my team and see what is better for me. After Miami there’s an extra week, which gives me a little bit more time to adjust to the clay. Monte Carlo is my favorite clay event, I live there, I’m going there now, I see all the people on a regular basis every day and I was very sad not to play last year.”
©”DAILY TENNIS NEWS WIRE”