Novak Djokovic has spoken candidly about his search for form and prospects of winning more big titles ahead of his return to the Miami Open.<\/p>\n
The legendary Serb is set to make his first appearance at the Masters 1000 tournament in Miami since 2019.<\/p>\n
The world No 5, who has won a joint-record six titles at the event, will face Rinky Hijikata in his opening match.<\/p>\n
Djokovic<\/a>\u00a0arrives in Miami having lost his last three matches \u2014 his longest losing streak since 2018.<\/p>\n The 37-year-old retired after losing the first set of his Australian Open semi-final with Alexander Zverev due to a hamstring injury.<\/p>\n The 24-time major winner has\u00a0lost his two opening matches since the Melbourne Grand Slam: to Matteo Berrettini at the Qatar Open and Botic van de Zandschulp in Indian Wells.<\/p>\n Speaking in his pre-tournament press conference in Miami, Djokovic assessed his start to the season.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m in pursuit to find the desired level of tennis. I haven\u2019t played my best or even close in Indian Wells and Doha,\u201d Djokovic admitted.<\/p>\n \u2018Players have started to realise Novak Djokovic is not invincible \u2013 the mental victory is not as hard\u2019<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n The 4 men to win 3 or more Miami Open titles: Novak Djokovic holds joint-record, Roger Federer with 4<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n \u201cI haven\u2019t been able to find that quality of tennis that I\u2019ve been looking for. I\u2019m working hard giving it my all on the practice courts and eventually it\u2019s going to come. I know that, hopefully here.<\/p>\n \u201cI played great in Australia. I thought I had a pretty good shot at the title in Melbourne. Unfortunately, it ended for me the way it ended, but nevertheless, it\u2019s still encouraging for me to see that I was able to play the way I was playing Australia.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m still able to win against the likes of Alcaraz. That\u2019s probably the biggest reason why I still keep pushing myself, motivating myself because I know I still have it in my legs, in my hands, in my arms.<\/p>\n \u201cI still have that tennis level that can put me in a good position to win the biggest titles in sport.\u201d<\/p>\n The former world No 1 also reflected on winning his maiden Masters 1000 title at the Miami Open in 2007.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m not a teenager anymore but I\u2019m still playing and I\u2019m still in love with this sport and that Miami win in 2007 was my first Masters 1000 category when it was the biggest title,\u2019\u2019 he said.<\/p>\n \u201cIt opened so many doors for me and made me believe in myself more and made me believe that I deserved to be in the mix with the best players in the world, that I\u2019m able to win the biggest title, so it was a huge springboard.<\/p>\n \u201cIt meant the world at the time and 18 years later here we are, another Miami. I missed it. I look forward in getting out in front of the very vibrant crowd.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s very international, many South Americans who love tennis. I always loved the atmosphere in Miami. I always thought it was very unique. I can\u2019t wait to get the sensation of walking out on centre court in front of them.\u201d<\/p>\n READ NEXT:\u00a0Novak Djokovic ranks five tennis legends \u2013 including Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n The post Novak Djokovic issues candid assessment of his form\u00a0ahead of Miami Open return<\/a> appeared first on Tennis365<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Novak Djokovic has spoken candidly about his search for form and prospects of winning more big titles ahead of his return to the Miami Open. The legendary Serb is set to make his first appearance at the Masters 1000 tournament in Miami since 2019. The world No 5, who has won a joint-record six titles […]<\/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-185","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185","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=185"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=185"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=185"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=185"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Novak Djokovic News<\/h2>\n