Re: Doha 2017: The Rise of Serbinator
Refreshed And Reloaded, Djokovic Takes Aim At 2017 | ATP World Tour | Tennis
Novak Djokovic looks ahead to season opener in Doha
Novak Djokovic has much to look forward to in 2017. The World No. 2 relinquished his No. 1 position in the Emirates ATP Rankings after a strong 2016 finish by Andy Murray and will be keen to exact revenge on his longtime rival to open the New Year.
The top two seeds at this week's Qatar ExxonMobil Open, Djokovic and Murray last met for the ATP Finals championship - and year-end No. 1 honour - in November. They could face off once again on Saturday in the Doha final.
"Of course I would like to congratulate Andy for reaching No. 1 and crowning his season again, because he has played some tremendous tennis, especially in the last three, four months," said Djokovic. "He definitely deserves to be there."
Despite dropping to No. 2, the 29-year-old Serbian is coming off another strong season, which saw him post a 65-9 record and notch seven titles. Djokovic enters Doha as as the defending champion and says he feels refreshed after a much-needed off-season break. The key? Spending time with family at home.
"We had now five, six weeks of off-season," Djokovic added. "Not entirely rest, because in the five, six weeks you have to put in the rest together with preparations. But it is as it is. Sometimes I've had even shorter off-seasons. But nevertheless, I did take some time off with family. I didn't travel much. I wanted to stay home and stay in one place where I can recharge my batteries. I just feel that I went to my home base.
"With the lifestyle of a tennis player and all the traveling, sometimes you lose coordinates. You are all over the place. So it's great to actually be in one place for certain amount of weeks. That allows you to unpack your things and mentally just relax and stay put.
"From that perspective you're able to observe things much differently. This off-season allowed me to really look back at what I've been through in my entire career, but especially in the last 12, 15 months, and to think about what is the next step and how I want to keep going."
Djokovic is making his third straight appearance at the season-opening ATP World Tour 250 event, having reached the quarter-finals in 2015 (l. to Karlovic), followed by a 6-1, 6-2 defeat of Rafael Nadal for the 2016 title. This week, the second seed opens against Jan-Lennard Struff, with a potential quarter-final rematch against Karlovic in the cards. Murray, third seed Tomas Berdych and fifth seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga loom in the other half of the draw.
"Now it's the third year in a row I'm in Doha and I'm really pleased to start off the year in this tournament. It is traditionally voted the best in its category. And deservedly so, because they have been really trying to make sure that every player is feeling at home.
"The facilities are great. The hotel is a very high-quality standard. You have the beach. You can bring your families in and have a nice balance between the family time. The site is very close. You have plenty of courts to practise. The matches are starting late in the day, which allows us to avoid the heat and all these things.
"So they're really doing their job very well. You can see every single year you get at least couple top players from Top 5 of the world. You have at least four, five players from Top 10. That says enough about what I personally, and we all players, feel about this tournament."