Novak Djokovic made some interesting comments after his last ATP Finals match, which Tennis Channel analyst Andy Roddick broke down.
Roddick knows Djokovic pretty well from their time on the ATP Tour together. The American certainly knows how Djokovic approaches things, which he shared during a segment on the Tennis Channel dedicated to Djokovic's comments after his win over Hubert Hurkacz.
At that time, he didn't know whether he was through to the semi-finals because a win by Holger Rune would have sent him home. Rune couldn't win his match as Sinner proved better in three sets.
Earlier in the day, Djokovic hinted at not caring about the result of that match, which seemed strange as his fate directly depended on it. Roddick attempted to break down what it meant.
Yeah I don't think Novak [Djokovic] meant that he didn't care about the result from the match, I think he meant like, 'It's out of my hands'. Right? Like, 'I did what I had to do. I came out, I had to win a match to give myself a chance, so you know, I am either going to be in the semis or I am going to be on vacation'. Both are pretty good scenarios for the go.
He just wants to get in some match play, go through this month of being intense before shutting it down or getting into a training block, before Australia. Yeah listen you can be a little calmer about the outcome when you have won this tournament as many times as you [Djokovic] have.
Roddick has a point that Djokovic essentially did his job. He named the number one finish as his biggest goal for the rest of the year, and he did that. Everything else is just a cherry on top, but he's not going to be crushed if things don't go his way. After all, the goal is Melbourne in two months' time.
And also listen, the larger goal might have been to wrap up the year at No. 1 for Novak which he did with his first round win over [Holger] Rune.
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