Patrick Mouratoglou breaks down why Djokovic is playing smaller events

Novak Djokovic played an ATP 250 event last week winning it and Patrick Mouratoglou thinks his motivation is the GOAT Race.

As Djokovic explained after his round two Astana Open win, his season was very different from many other players due to him missing a lot of time. He is still feeling fresh and could play many more events and that's the reason why he played last week and this week as well.

Mouratoglou thinks it's to keep himself motivated as he battles Nadal for GOAT status:

"There is one of the most interesting things in the history of our game that is taking place at the moment, which is this race. At this stage of his career, Novak has one goal, which is to win as many Grand Slams as possible because he's into a race with Rafa.

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He doesn't have many chances, he has only 2 per year, because at the moment he doesn't play the Australian Open and the US Open. So in order to be really efficient in those big tournaments, you need matches, you need to be in the rhythm, and you need to win matches. He's lacking that for the moment"

Mouratoglou added:

"I think it's difficult for him and I also think it's one of the reasons why he's playing these lower-ranked tournaments because he needs to keep the rhythm and keep the motivation in order to get ready for the Australian Open"