Novak Djokovic moved to the 2022 Serbia Open semifinals after another comeback, and after the match, he spoke a lot about his motivation to remain on the ATP Tour.
The world number one is going through a difficult period in his career. He missed out on the majority of the 2022 season, and without many matches, he needs to fight a lot at the 2022 Serbia Open to get back into match practice and win matches more easily again.
However, it looks like the 20-time Grand Slam champion is proving his greatness again when he came back from being a set down already twice in the Novak Tennis Center in Belgrade.
After his win over Miomic Kecmanovic, he first spoke about how he felt during the match and his upcoming match at the ATP 250 tournament.
"The scenario was similar to last evening's match, but I managed to win and qualify for the semis. Thanks to my team, I felt better than last night. It's a very strange feeling, sharing the court with your compatriots."
"Obviously the crowd was phenomenal for both players in yesterday's match and today. They're very rare occasions when I'm able to play at home and experience this atmosphere, so I'm trying to enjoy every single moment. I'm very pleased that I'm not going to play a Serbian player. That's going to be very nice for a change."
Then, he started talking about his career in general and his motivation to tackle the challenges he's been facing during the 2022 season so far, as this part of his career is much different than ten or 20 years ago.
"Every stage of your career — especially after playing for 20 years on the Tour — has its differences in terms of how you approach things mentally. My life has changed so much over the last 10 years, and my body as well."
"So you have to adapt to that, understand these changes, understand what I'm going through and figure out the biology of things. I constantly strategise, organise and plan with my team that helps me to peak at the right time and be able to compete with the young guys."
Djokovic is one of the most inspiring tennis players when it comes to playing late into careers, as he arguably had the biggest success after turning 30, the age when many players already think about retirement.
"For me, age is just a number. I sincerely feel younger than 35. All these expectations from people, they got used to seeing you at that level for 10, 15 years. They always expect you to be winning 99 per cent of the matches. But obviously that's not possible. You have to accept the fact that you going to lose, that you're not going to feel good, that it might take more time to get into the groove."
"There's so many different factors that effect the outcome that you see and the performance on the court. But the discipline needs to always be present. Before discipline, I would say it's commitment and devotion. If you're not committed and devoted, then you're not going to have as much discipline that is necessary."
But the most important factor for the Serbian is why he keeps playing. He doesn't have any financial or other incentive, the reason is because he loves the sport, and he wants to continue playing it, which makes it easier to overcome all the challenges that he faces.
"But even before that is, obviously, what drives you: Why are you playing? And for me, I try to always draw the strength from the love and passion for the game."
"I choose to play. No one is forcing me to play. I've done enough in my career that I could stop today. But I still feel motivated and inspired. I love to play in front of people, of course here in Serbia is a unique opportunity for me, and those kind of unique occasions feed me with good energy."
"I love being here and I love competing. I also, as weird as it sounds, I love being devastated by losing big matches. Because I know that means that I care about winning and being able to compete with the best players in the world."