Novak Djokovic missed out on both Indian Wells and Miami in recent weeks owing to his decision not to get vaccinated against COVID-19 and the current mandates not being lifted until May at the earliest.
For Djokovic, he has 'no regrets' about the decision he made and despite conscious efforts were made to get into the country, he always knew it was a huge undertaking.
“No, I have no regrets,” Djokovic said in an exclusive interview with CNN “I’ve learned through life that regrets only hold you back and basically make you live in the past and I don’t want to do that.
“I also don’t want to live too much in the future. I want to be as much as in the present moment, but of course think about future, create a better future. So I congratulate Alcaraz. He absolutely deserves to come back to No. 1.
“It’s a pity that I wasn’t able to play in Indian Wells, Miami. I love those tournaments.
“I had plenty of success there, but at the same time, it is the conscious decision I made and I knew that there is always a possibility that I won’t go, and it is the current state or current situation that I hope will change for later this year for the US Open.
“That is the most important tournament for me on the American soil.”
As a result with his return coming at Srpska Open and Monte-Carlo Masters in the coming weeks, clay is on his mind but also the US Open with a return there high on his agenda.
“I really want to be playing there, want to be there,” Djokovic said. “I actually had in 2021 when I lost in the finals against (Daniil) Medvedev, probably the one of best moments I ever had with the New York crowd and I’ve been fortunate to win that tournament three times, play many finals.
“Even though I lost that match, I received a lot of love and appreciation from people and I want to go back and I want to reconnect with the crowd there. So that’s something I’m looking forward to and hopefully it will happen.”
Novak Djokovic: "It’s a pity that I wasn’t able to play in Indian Wells, Miami. I had plenty of success there but it's the conscious decision I made and I knew there's always a possibility that I won’t go. I have no regrets, I congratulate Alcaraz. He deserves to come back to #1"
