Novak Djokovic has revealed that participating at the Los Angeles Olympics in 2028 motivates him more than playing at the four Grand Slams \u2013 calling the event \u2018unique.\u2019<\/p>\n
The former world No 1 may have had a relatively disappointing last 18 months \u2013 if only by his own very high standard \u2013 but seemingly has no plans to hang up his racket any time soon.<\/p>\n
Most recently, Djokovic<\/a> lifted his 100th<\/sup> ATP Tour title at the ATP 250 event in Geneva, a milestone only reached by Roger Federer (103) and Jimmy Connors (109), and is currently on the search for his 25th<\/sup> Grand Slam at the French Open.<\/p>\n However, whilst one more Grand Slam would put him above any singles player \u2013 male or female \u2013 the Serb revealed that he is even more motivated to participate at the Los Angeles Olympics in 2028, when he would be 41 years old.<\/p>\n \u201cThe only thing I currently have in my vision it\u2019s interesting when we talk about those achievements and the Olympics, which stands out alongside the Davis Cup, what gives me motivation is the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles and playing for my country,\u201d Djokovic stated, whilst speaking to Croatian footballer Slaven Bilic<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd yes, the Grand Slam tournaments, but not even they motivate me as much as the Olympics.\u201d<\/p>\n After three semi-final defeats at the 2008, 2012, and 2021 Olympic events, the 24-time Grand Slam champion finally got his hands on the gold medal when the event arrived in Paris in 2024.<\/p>\n Djokovic was in vintage form, not dropping a set in any of his six matches, and played his best match in the final against Carlos Alcaraz, where he prevailed 7-6(3), 7-6(2).<\/p>\n In doing so, the former world No 1 became the third man to complete the Career Golden Slam (winning all four Grand Slams and a gold medal in singles), after Andre Agassi and Rafael Nadal.<\/p>\n Once he had won the event, Djokovic joked that had \u2018completed tennis\u2019 after winning nearly every event that there is to win.<\/p>\n \u201cYes, I mean if you solely look at it from the perspective of completing achievements and the game itself? Then, yeah, I mean I guess,\u201d stated the Serb, after being asked by GQ<\/a> if he had, indeed, \u2018completed tennis.\u2019<\/p>\n \u201cBoth publicly and privately, a lot of people told me they think it\u2019s best if you leave on a high, which I understand, don\u2019t get me wrong, I do understand that.<\/p>\n \u201cBut if I still physically am capable and I still feel like I can beat the best players in the world in Grand Slams\u2014why would I want to stop now?\u201d<\/p>\n Chris Evert on which of Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz is \u2018mentally tougher\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n Novak Djokovic gets huge Grand Slam vote of confidence from former world No 1<\/a><\/p>\n Despite the victory, Djokovic believes that nothing comes close to the atmosphere of the Olympic event \u2013 even on days when he is not competing.<\/p>\n \u201cI just want to be at the Olympics, to be an Olympian,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cTo experience that moment wearing my country\u2019s crest, walking through the Olympic Village with the world\u2019s best athletes, that feeling is sport itself.<\/p>\n \u201cAnyone who hasn\u2019t experienced it can\u2019t fully understand, but for athletes who have had the privilege to experience it, it is unique.\u201d<\/p>\n The 2028 LA Olympics is due to take place from July 14 \u2013 30, with the location for the tennis category not yet chosen by the tournament organisers.<\/p>\n The post Novak Djokovic reveals the thing that is an even greater motivation than Grand Slams<\/a> appeared first on Tennis365<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Novak Djokovic has revealed that participating at the Los Angeles Olympics in 2028 motivates him more than playing at the four Grand Slams \u2013 calling the event \u2018unique.\u2019 The former world No 1 may have had a relatively disappointing last 18 months \u2013 if only by his own very high standard \u2013 but seemingly has […]<\/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-532","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/532","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=532"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/532\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=532"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=532"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=532"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Latest ATP News<\/h3>\n