Novak Djokovic believes he can win all four Grand Slams and Olympic gold in 2024 as he warned his rivals that his drive and desire for success remains as strong as ever. The legendary Serbian capped another stellar season by sealing a record-breaking 7th ATP Finals title on Sunday.
The previous such unimaginable run in more recent times came in 2021 when he went on a 27-match win streak and was looking favorite to complete the Calendar Slam but just fell at the last hurdle against Daniil Medvedev in the final of US Open.
Now once again, Djokovic as he heads into the off-season – after a year in which he claimed three of the four majors to bring his Slam count to 24 – is vowing to win all in the upcoming 2024 season.
The 36-year-old has concluded the 2023 season as the year-end No. 1 for the record 8th time and now also wears a record extending weeks spent as year-end No. 1 feather in his cap with 400+ plus weeks. Djokovic has won 6 titles this year which also include a record-extending 40th Masters 1000 crown.
If that wasn’t enough, he edged past young challengers as he crushed and dismantled Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner in the semifinal and final for straight-set victories to top at Turin to set a new record of 7-year-end championships.
The World No. 1 is now gunning for more glory in the coming year which also presents Paris Olympics – an event Djokovic has not won until yet.
Djokovic, now leaps and bounds ahead of his greatest rival Nadal, when asked what else he can accomplish in tennis after his devastatingly triumphant run in 2023, Djoker joked: “Well, you can win four Slams and Olympic gold (smiling). Let’s see. I mean, I have always the highest ambitions and goals. That’s not going to be different for the next year, that’s for sure.”
“The drive that I have is still there. My body has been serving me well, listening to me well. I have a great team of people around me. Motivation, especially for the biggest tournaments in sport, is still present. It still inspires me to keep going.
“In the end of the day, people see you performing in the big tournaments, but they don’t see all the weeks and months of dedicated day-to-day, week-to-week work, trying to build your form so that you can peak where you want to peak.
“For me, obviously those are Grand Slams and World Tour Finals, and next year hopefully also Olympic Games. The mindset is the same. I’ll keep going. I don’t know whether I’m going to have as good of a year next year, but I’m going to keep this kind of, yeah, freshness of mind and in a way motivation to do that.”
Djokovic highlighted the Olympics gold as a primary target, but recognized the fact that it will be played on clay at Roland Garros after Wimbledon which will make it tough in terms of scheduling.
“It is definitely one of the major goals for next year, other than Grand Slams. It’s going to be very congested schedule with going from the slowest to the fastest surface in sport back to the slowest,” the 24-time Grand Slam champion assessed.
“Clay, grass, clay, then hard court. Obviously that’s a very demanding, challenging stretch of the year. I’m going to have to speak with my team to see how we can plan out our preparations, training, so that I’m able to play my best tennis where I want to.”