Novak Djokovic pins hopes on Geneva Open for match practice

Wednesday, 22 May 2024 at 08:06

Novak Djokovic will play at the Geneva Open this week and starts his campaign on Wednesday against Yannick Hanfmann. For the Serbian, he will look for match practice he admits after floundering at the Rome Open losing out to Alejandro Tabilo.

Djokovic had to think quickly after not executing his plan like he would like of getting matches in during Rome and going into Roland Garros fully prepared. As a result when Geneva came calling, he was all ears and will play his first ATP 250 in a number of years. But it won't be Andy Murray, it will be Yannick Hanfmann up first for the World No.1.

Djokovic spoke in his press conference before the tournament and said that he needs more matches even if it is one more to assess where he is. He hadn't played since Monte-Carlo prior to Rome and has had a fairly stop start season. He was looking to peak in particular at the trio of Roland Garros, Wimbledon and the Olympic Games followed by the US Open, but it seems that he underestimated it at least for the former.

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The reason why I chose to come and play I because I feel like at this moment there is no better practice for me than match play," he explained in his pre-tournament press conference.

"I feel like I need more matches. Even if it’s one match, two matches, three-four, hopefully, it’s good for me because that’s the way for me to try to find that kind of form that I need for Roland-Garros."

"Let’s see how it goes in the match. In terms of fitness, I’ve dedicated quite a bit of time with my new-old fitness coach to build endurance and the physical strength and the capabilities that I need in order to play the best-of-five Grand Slam on the physically most demanding surface which is clay," he continued.

But also he gave an update on his head and said that he is fine after having a bottle dropped from height during Rome. He didn't feel the same against Tabilo. This caused alarm bells, but a doctor in Belgrade cleared him to be fine. "The head is good. All is well, so far. I trained for over a week and I’m feeling fine."

Saša Ozmo

@ozmo_sasa

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🎾 Most Grand Slam titles (24) 🎾 Most weeks as number 1 (426 and counting) 🎾 Most Masters title (40) and career Golden Masters (twice) 🎾 Eight-time Year-End No 1 🎾 Non-calendar Slam Novak #Djokovic turns 37 today 🐺

5:38 AM · May 22, 2024

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