Novak Djokovic has opened up on his motivation levels as he prepares to play at the Madrid Open for the first time since 2022.<\/p>\n
Djokovic<\/a> stated on several occasions last year that he was lacking the desire to compete in regular ATP Tour events, with his decision to pull of several events confirming his focus was now trained on Grand Slam tournaments.<\/p>\n Yet that approach has changed dramatically in recent months, with Djokovic playing in a tour event in Qatar in February and then spending most of March in America as he played at the Indian Wells and Miami Masters.<\/p>\n He then played at the Monte Carlo Masters, losing his first match against Alejandro Tabilo and describing his performance as \u2018horrible\u2019.<\/p>\n Despite that loss earlier this month, Djokovic has arrived in Madrid with coach Andy Murray alongside him and when asked by Eurosport Spain<\/a> to describe his levels of motivation, he offered an intriguing answer.<\/p>\n The 5 players to beat Carlos Alcaraz in a final: Novak Djokovic the only man to do it twice, Holger Rune joins list<\/a><\/p>\n Novak Djokovic\u2019s next tournament, his ranking, prize money total and sponsors<\/a><\/p>\n Djokovic was asked if the retirement of his great rivals Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Murray had impacted his own desire to fight on in the sport and he insisted he would not be in Madrid if his motivation had evaporated.<\/p>\n \u201cIf I\u2019m not motivated, I\u2019m not here. I don\u2019t play anymore. I put the racket to rest,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cI still feel the desire to play, the passion to compete is always there. I hope to push harder. The Grand Slams are tournaments where I have more motivation to do well.\u201d<\/p>\n He was also asked to asses his chance of success in Madrid, as he admitted his ambitions are a lower than they used to be.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m always optimistic, but I don\u2019t know if I\u2019m one of the favourites because I\u2019m not having very good results this year,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n \u201cThe level I\u2019m looking for could come here or at Roland Garros, I hope it will be here.<\/p>\n \u201cI always have very good feelings when I return to Madrid, to Spain. It\u2019s a country I love very much. I\u2019ve won the Madrid Open three times in my career, with extraordinary matches against Nadal and [Carlos] Alcaraz.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve played little here in the last six to seven years, but I missed the Spanish public, because they know the sport well and respect tennis a lot. I have a good feeling and I hope to have a good tournament.\u201d<\/p>\n Djokovic has been enjoying his time in Madrid ahead of his opening match of the ATP Masters 1000 tournament, after he attended a Real Madrid soccer match at the Bernabeu on Sunday and then was in attendance at the Laureus Sports Awards on Monday evening.<\/p>\n He has also been practising at the Madrid Open venue, with Murray\u2019s presence as part of his coaching team evidence of his desire to impress as he looks to finally win the 100th title of his remarkable career.<\/p>\n READ NEXT: Novak Djokovic and Carlos Alcaraz to crash out as Alexander Zverev fights back \u2013 Madrid Open predictions<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n The post Novak Djokovic makes revealing motivation confession and admits he is \u2018not one of the favourites\u2019<\/a> appeared first on Tennis365<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Novak Djokovic has opened up on his motivation levels as he prepares to play at the Madrid Open for the first time since 2022. Djokovic stated on several occasions last year that he was lacking the desire to compete in regular ATP Tour events, with his decision to pull of several events confirming his focus […]<\/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-342","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/342","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=342"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/342\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=342"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=342"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=342"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}More Tennis News<\/h3>\n