Novak Djokovic has not left many records to be broken but there are few in his checklist set by peers Roger Federer and Rafael. The legendary Serbian has revealed to have extra motivation when targeting Federer’s record of 8 Wimbledon titles on Sunday.
The 37-year-old is set to appear in the rematch of 2023 Wimbledon Championship match against Carlos Alcaraz after edging past Lorenzo Musetti in a very efficient manner of Friday semifinal. Djokovic had to undergo a surgery after sustaining a meniscus tear at Roland Garros R16 clash against Francisco Cerundolo.
The 24-time Grand Slam champion made a swift recovery to return to the All England Club wearing a grey knee support and dispelled any further injury woes by efficiently winning most of his 6 matches to enter the final. In the semifinal stage Djokovic played 6-4, 7-6(2), 6-4 to get a win in 2 hours and 48 minutes.
Now the former World #1 stands on the brink of history as he attempts to fetch a record-equaling 8th Wimbledon title and get one clear of Margaret Court’s 24 major titles.
Djokovic has admitted that eying those historic milestones gives him an extra spark ahead of his showpiece Sunday final against Carlos Alcaraz.
“Obviously I’m aware that Roger holds eight Wimbledons. I hold seven. History is on the line. Also, the 25th potential Grand Slam,” said Djokovic.
“Of course, it serves as a great motivation, but at the same time, it’s also a lot of pressure and expectations. Every time I step out on the court now, even though I’m 37 and competing with the 21-year-olds, I still expect myself to win most of the matches, and people expect me to win, whatever, 99 per-cent of the matches that I play.
“I always have to come out on the court and perform my best in order to still be at the level with Carlos or Jannik (Sinner) or Sascha (Zverev) or any of those guys, Daniil (Medvedev).”
The 7-time Wimbledon champion also expressed that a victory at Wimbledon Center Court would provide a much needed spark to his so far muted 2024 campaign and charge him up for the latter half of the tennis calendar.
“This year hasn’t been that successful for me,” he added.
“It’s probably the weakest results the first six months I’ve had in many years. That’s okay. I had to adapt and accept that and really try to find also way out from the injury that I had and kind of regroup.
“Wimbledon, historically, there’s been seasons where I wasn’t maybe playing at a desired level, but then I would win a Wimbledon title and then things would change.
“For example, that was the case in 2018 when I had elbow surgery earlier in the year, dropped my rankings out of top 20, losing in fourth round of the Australian Open, I think it was quarters of Roland Garros, and just not playing the tennis that I want to play.
“Then I won Wimbledon and then won US Open and then later on became No. 1 very soon. Yeah, Wimbledon just extracts the best of me and motivates me to really always show up and perform the best I can.
“Of course, I’m aware of what’s on the line. It always is really. Any Grand Slam that I play, there’s always history now on the line. I will try to use that as fuel to play my best tennis.”
History is on Djokovic’s iconic racket for another time in the recent years – last time in 2021 when chasing calendar slam – let’s see how if he achieves he remarkable feat.