After the epic victory over the fourth player in the world and almost 14 years younger Felix Auger-Aliassime, Novak Đoković spoke about one of the best matches of his career, Kurir reports.
“There were a lot of emotions during this match, a lot of tension, a lot of everything, a lot of fluctuations in every aspect, and I would not like to go into details now. Under such pressure when a person plays, all sorts of things happen,” he points out and then adds:
“It is important in the end to leave the court with your head held high, whether after a defeat or after a victory. It was truly a pleasure for me to be a part of such an epic, historic match, where I played for five hours with a guy 14 years younger, at the age of 39. Sometimes I have to remind myself too that this is truly extraordinary. I do not want and I do not like to talk about myself in superlatives and to praise myself, but I must be proud of such a result, of such an experience, of such effort and energy that was invested,” he tells us.
The challenges with the injury worried us all at the end of the first set, about which Novak speaks the following:
“The situation has changed a lot in the last two years when it comes to the body, and almost every day there are some difficulties and some new things that I have to deal with. Honestly, I don’t remember when was the last time I played a match completely healthy. Therefore, this victory is even greater, because only we in the team know what the commitment was like. I can say that I am very proud and, of course, excited about these kinds of experiences that I had on the court,” he says, and returns to the match:
“As I said, there are a lot of ups and downs in matches like this and it is very difficult to maintain concentration for five hours, especially against an opponent 15 years younger who is third or fourth in the world, motivated and playing perhaps the tennis of his life. That is nothing new for me, but, on the other hand, these challenges are becoming bigger and bigger and I have to exert myself much more to win matches like this. Of course, I had a break advantage in the fourth set, then a rather weak service game in which I dropped it and gave him wings. He came back, and at this level it is unacceptable to have such drops, because they are immediately punished.”
Novak managed to “survive” this fight and in the end emerge from it as the winner.
“But there you go, in the end I managed to pull through both physically, emotionally, and mentally. It was one of the most demanding matches recently, honestly. I think it’s the longest I’ve ever played at Wimbledon. All in all, when the line is drawn, at 39 years old to play the way I play and after five hours to defeat such a tournament favorite is truly extraordinary. I want to fall asleep with that tonight,” Novak concludes with a smile.
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Source: Vuk Brajović / Kurir; Photo: ADAM VAUGHAN / EPA