ĐOKOVIĆ AFTER THE TRIUMPH: I still have the desire to fight, I must be grateful for a brilliant career! (VIDEO)

Novak Đoković successfully started his participation in the US Open with a victory over the American Learner Tien, and after the match, he thanked the audience at “Arthur Ashe” and pointed out how much the support means to him in the fight with younger and younger rivals.

Novak defeated the young American in a match in which he did not fight only with him, but also with blisters, but at the end of the match he pointed out that everything was fine and thanked the audience in New York.

“Good evening everyone, thank you for coming tonight. It was great to feel what it’s like to play on a Sunday night for the first time in my career. I have never started a tournament on a Sunday before and I would certainly like it to be like that in the future. As always, the best night session in the world is right here – at “Arthur Ashe”. You are great fans, thank you very much, the atmosphere was fantastic. It’s great to be back here,” Đoković told the enthusiastic fans.

In his style, the Serbian ace also referred to the course of the match which, after a convincing first set, brought real drama in the second.

“It was a very strange match. The first set lasted a little over 20 minutes, the second as long as an hour and 20. Completely different sets. I think the key was to deal with the nervousness in the second set. When I succeeded in that, I started to feel better and finished the match in a good way. I could have done better, but all in all, a good start to the tournament,” said Novak.

An interesting fact is that Đoković is playing in his 19th US Open, while his rival is only 19 years old. The Serbian tennis player did not fail to comment on that symbolic moment.

“To be honest, I would like to be as old as Learner Tien, but that’s not possible. He is twice my age – that’s incredible. When you get into your late 30s, it’s all about saving energy for what’s most important. The body doesn’t recover like it used to, so I try to work on that, but also to maintain mental freshness in order to compete with younger players,” said the Serbian tennis player.

However, the desire to compete is still burning.

“I still have the desire to fight. The audience helps me with that and gives me energy. Sometimes I wish I was younger, but I have to be grateful for the brilliant career I’ve had both here in New York and around the world. I want to continue to compete and I hope you all enjoy my tennis,” Đoković concluded.

The problem called a blister

“The blister wasn’t that much of a problem for me, I struggled more physically. I’m not worried about the blister, but about how I recovered after longer exchanges”.

Serbian proverb

Đoković is known as a polyglot, and to explain this he used a Serbian proverb.

“I don’t speak all those languages fluently, but I speak well enough to communicate. I don’t know what you mean by knowing a language. In Serbian there is a saying that you are as rich as the languages you speak. When you make an effort to speak someone’s language, people respect you, they treat you differently. And I have always loved when someone does that. This is an incredible world with many languages, I want to learn some more – Greek, Russian, maybe to perfect my Spanish. I have many more years of learning, and the tennis Tour allows interaction with different languages”.

Sharapova in the Hall of Fame

He also referred to the fact that in Newport, Serena Williams “inducted” Maria Sharapova into the Hall of Fame.

“A wonderful moment. I was a little surprised, a nice gesture by Serena to be there for Maria. They had an intense rivalry, they were both honest in their speeches, and Serena said that people probably thought she was the last one people thought would be there. It was an eloquent and beautiful speech, when Serena said that they were more similar than people thought. Maria deserves it – an incredible champion and an icon off the court as well, with everything she has built. To see Serena in any way around tennis is wonderful, she hasn’t officially retired yet, ha-ha. Here, I challenge her to return to the Tour, she loves when she gets a challenge”.

In the second round he will play against another American, the 143rd player in the world, Zachary Svajda, who was better than the Hungarian Zsombors Piros.