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The current world number one has 17 Grand Slam
titles to his name - two behind Rafa Nadal and three fewer than
Roger Federer - and said he has no doubt in his ability to
overtake the other members of the so-called 'Big Three.'
"I'm always very confident in myself," he said in an interview
on In Depth with Graham Bensinger. "I believe I can win the most
slams and break the record for longest number one. Those are
definitely my clear goals."
Djokovic was in imperious form before the novel coronavirus
pandemic brought the circuit to a halt in early March.
He lifted the ATP Cup with Serbia, won an eighth Australian Open
title and then completed a fifth triumph at the Dubai Tennis
Championships, extending his unbeaten run to 21.
Swiss great Federer also owns the record for total number of
weeks at number one, with 310, and consecutive weeks at the top
position, with 237, compared with Djokovic's 282 and 122.
Federer turns 39 in August and Djokovic said he could envision
himself still playing at 40.
"I don't believe in limits. I think limits are only illusions of
your ego or your mind," he said.
It wasn't too long ago that Djokovic had an entirely different
outlook on the game.
After falling in straight sets to unseeded Benoit Paire at the
Miami Open in 2018, his wife, Jelena, said he was ready to hang
up the racquet.
"He said to me that he's quitting and that's the truth," she
said in the interview. "He lost in Miami. It was a terrible
loss. And then he just, you know, gathered all of us and said,
'You know guys, I'm done.'"
"And I was like, 'What?' And he goes like, 'Yeah.' He said, 'Edoardo
[Artaldi], you can speak with my sponsors. I want to be clear
with them. I don't know if I'm stopping for six months, a year
or forever.'"
Djokovic did not go through with his retirement plans and
bounced back to triumph at Wimbledon that July.
In the wide-ranging interview, Djokovic also discussed past
struggles with his health, his marriage and surviving the
bombings in his native Serbia in 1999.
The full interview will air in the U.S. this weekend on local
affiliates, and on international and regional sports networks
next week.
(Reporting by Rory Carroll in Los Angeles. Editing by Gerry
Doyle)
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