Melbourne (AFP): World number one Novak Djokovic is hoping his latest trip to Australia is not the last, but admits that at 36 he is now taking it “season by season”.
The Serbian superstar is the king of the Melbourne Park hard courts, winning the Australian Open a record 10 times, with an 11th in his sights next month.
He gets his preparations under way in Perth at the ATP-WTA United Cup on Sunday after another incredible season that brought three more Grand Slam titles for a record 24.
That included another Australian Open, taming Greece’s Stefanos Tsitsipas 6–3, 7–6 (7–4), 7–6 (7–5) in the 2023 final.
So dominant is Djokovic that he has won four of the last five Australian Opens with the only exception being 2022, when he was kicked out of the country for refusing to get the Covid-19 vaccine.
“I hope it’s not the last, to be honest,” he said of being in Australia again after his arrival in Perth and a late training session on Thursday.
“Coming back to Australia, I’ve always felt like I played my best tennis over the years and had great support. So I’m not sure, I don’t really have a plan (for) what’s going to happen next year.
“I’m kind of taking season by season to see how far it takes me.”
Djokovic’s absence from the 2022 Australian Open saw long-time rival Rafael Nadal add to his only other title at Melbourne Park in 2009.
Nadal, 37, returns after a year away from the sport at the Brisbane International this week following hip surgery, with the two greats set to cross paths in Australia one more time.
Djokovic, who has largely escaped injuries over the years, said he expects the 22-time Grand Slam winner to be as competitive as ever.
“He’s not a kind of a player that will come back to the tour just to play — let’s say — on a medium level, play a few matches,” Djokovic said at an exhibition match in Saudi Arabia before heading to Perth.
“He wants to win titles, he wants to be the best, that’s why he is who he is: a legend of our sport.”
Nadal ‘feeling good’
Rafael Nadal said Friday he was “feeling good” but played down any chance of winning tournaments in the near future as he returns from a near year-long injury absence.
The 37-year-old has not played since a second-round loss at the Australian Open this year, undergoing two rounds of hip surgery on the long road back.
It raised fears his career could be over, but he will again grace the courts at the Brisbane International starting on Sunday ahead of the Australian Open in Melbourne.
“I am feeling good,” the Spaniard, who has previously indicated it could be his farewell season, said at a promotional event in the city.
“I can’t complain. I feel much better today than what I expected one month ago, but for me, it’s impossible to think about winning tournaments today.
“What’s possible is to enjoy the comeback to the court.
“I don’t expect much, honestly,” he added. “The only thing that I expect is to be able to go on court, to feel myself competitive and to give my best.”
The 22-time Grand Slam champion spent time at his academy in Kuwait this month in search of temperatures and conditions similar to those he will encounter in Australia.
But his level of training has been limited and he admitted it would be “a tough process in the beginning”.
“It’s not like I’ve been practising with good intensity for the last six months. I just have been practising for the last month in a very good intensity,” he said.
“Nothing is impossible. But for me, just being here is a victory, and I hope that I will have a chance to enjoy, and the crowd too.”
A two-time Australian Open champion, in 2009 and 2022, Nadal has slipped behind old rival Novak Djokovic in the all-time list of Grand Slam singles titles, as the Serb won three this year in his absence to take his tally to a record 24.
Nadal said at this stage of his career “I cannot have super long-term goals because I don’t see myself playing for a super long time”.
“But in my mind, I’m going to try to give myself the opportunity to be more and more competitive as the season keeps going.”
