Novak Djokovic is reigning in what he focuses on in the tennis calendar as the 24-time Grand Slam champion prepares to navigate the twilight of his career.
“To prolong my career, I need to choose wisely tournaments I am going to play,” he said.
For him, that means anything that doesn’t include “Grand Slams and playing for Serbia” have become irrelevant, whether than be a 250-level tournament in Belgrade he was originally squared up to potentially play in November or the glamorous year-end 2024 ATP Finals that are scheduled to begin in Turin, Italy in two months.
“Usually in my career I used to have my schedule ready six months in advance, but nowadays that’s not the case, now it’s more spontaneous. Firstly, I need to physically, emotionally and mentally rest in order to even start thinking what I want to do next, in what way, how much and where,” he explained.
“Torino [and the ATP Finals] is not my goal at all, to be honest, I am not chasing ATP Finals, I am not chasing the rankings. As far as I’m concerned, I am done with those tournaments for my career. Whether I will play others this year or in the future, I can’t say right now.
“My main priorities are playing for the national team and Slams, everything else is less important.”
Whether or not he’ll still be able to compete at the same level at the Grand Slams he enters remains to be seen—he was most recently booted out by Australian Alexei Popyrin at the US Open in round three—but considering they’re something he “still enjoys,” they won’t be getting trimmed from his planning until he can no longer play at all.
After his Davis Cup responsibilities (which obviously fall under his “Serbia” plans), Djokovic will play an exhibition match in Sofia and then has a Masters 1000 tournament in Shanghai that he’s already booked to play.
“After that, I am going to see what am I going to do,” the former World No. 1 concluded.
