Novak Djokovic has admitted he is not sure if he will return to the Australian Open \u201cas an active player\u201d after his defeat to Carlos Alcaraz in the final at the Melbourne Grand Slam<\/p>\n
The 24-time major champion suffered his first-ever defeat in an Australian Open championship match as he was beaten 2-6, 6-2, 6-3, 7-5 by Alcaraz<\/a>, the world No 1.<\/p>\n At the age of 38, Djokovic<\/a> made history by becoming the oldest Australian Open finalist in history, while he also became the second oldest player to play in a Grand Slam final after Ken Rosewall, who was 39 when he reached the 1974 US Open final.<\/p>\n The Serbian, who has won a record 10 Australian Open titles, sparked speculation about his future with his message to the Rod Laver Arena crowd at the end of his runner-up speech.<\/p>\n \u201cGod knows what happens tomorrow, let alone in six or 12 months, but it has been a great ride. I love you guys,\u201d Djokovic said.<\/p>\n In his press conference with Serbian media after the final, Djokovic was asked about his on-court comments.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t know, I don\u2019t know\u2026 I don\u2019t know if I\u2019ll see them [again] or not, that\u2019s why I left it open,\u201d said the former world No 1.<\/p>\n Novak Djokovic urged to make a radical move in his bid to chase 25th Grand Slam title<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n The 6 active ATP players to win a Grand Slam singles title: Novak Djokovic on 24, Carlos Alcaraz up to 7<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n Want more from Tennis365? Add us as a preferred source on Google to your favourites list<\/a> for tennis coverage you can trust.<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cYou\u2019ve been following me for a long time and \u2014 I\u2019m not pretending, I\u2019m not faking, I\u2019m not twisting things, I\u2019m telling you how it is.<\/p>\n \u201cI told you that in the last year or year and a half, I\u2019m not sure how much or what\u2026 I would say that I would like to play until the Olympics in 2028 to play, but now\u2026 That means I can play one tournament a year, maybe 15, maybe two, maybe seven, I don\u2019t know.<\/p>\n \u201cThe crowd gave me unforgettable emotions in the last two matches, I\u2019ve certainly never experienced that in totality here.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m very grateful that I finally experienced it because I think I deserved it \u2014 I thank them from the bottom of my heart.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ll return to Australia \u2014 as an active player or not, we\u2019ll see, about then and later.\u201d<\/p>\n Djokovic has climbed from fourth to third in the ATP Rankings<\/a> after his run to the final in Australia.<\/p>\n READ NEXT: Carlos Alcaraz sends strong message to \u2018those who didn\u2019t believe in me\u2019 after Australian Open win<\/a> The post Novak Djokovic\u2019s candid answer when asked if he will return to the Australian Open<\/a> appeared first on Tennis365<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Novak Djokovic has admitted he is not sure if he will return to the Australian Open \u201cas an active player\u201d after his defeat to Carlos Alcaraz in the final at the Melbourne Grand Slam The 24-time major champion suffered his first-ever defeat in an Australian Open championship match as he was beaten 2-6, 6-2, 6-3, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1703","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1703","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1703"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1703\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1703"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1703"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1703"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Tennis News<\/h2>\n
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