World No 1 Novak Djokovic intends to spend less time on the tennis circuit and more time with his family as he looks to catch and overtake Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal's tally of 20 Grand Slam singles titles
Tuesday 11 May 2021 11:31, UK
Novak Djokovic has cut back his schedule as he targets Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal's Grand Slam tally of 20 majors.
The soon-to-be 34-year-old achieved one of his major goals by overtaking Swiss great Federer to record the most weeks at world No 1 in men's tennis history.
But now the Serbian, who collected his ninth Australian Open earlier this year to take him to 18 Grand Slam titles, has a goal of catching and overtaking Federer and Nadal's haul.
"It is a different schedule from what I had for so many years. Of course, it does feel different. I don't want to say strange because it's not strange," said Djokovic.
"I'm actually looking forward to take that next step in my career and my life where I'm going to spend more time with my family and just do other things that interest me.
"But at the same time, I do play a specific amount of tournaments that would prepare me as best as possible for the Grand Slams. I didn't play so great in Monaco and Belgrade, but I'm hopefully going to change that here in Rome and then another week in Belgrade before the French (Open).
"Four tournaments before the French is, I think, enough in terms of the match play. So I'm building my fitness and I'm building my game slowly step by step in order to peak in Paris. That's definitely where I want to play my best."
Djokovic, who skipped the Madrid Open last week, will be hoping to find his feet on the clay at the Rome Masters - a tournament that he has won five times - after shock defeats to Britain's Dan Evans in Monte Carlo and Aslan Karatsev on home soil in Belgrade.
The French Open starts on May 30 with Djokovic looking to add to the title he won at Roland Garros in 2016.
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