The first thing Novak Djokovic does is disappear from the scene through the interior corridor of the Philippe Chatrier, climb into his box and put on the tracksuit jacket with the number 23 on his chest.
Embracing his Musketeer Cup, microphone in hand after the final, he addresses the Philippe Chatrier in French (he also speaks English, Italian, German, even broken Spanish).
“Although I have to find a French teacher,” he says, joking now with the audience that booed him days ago. And to Ruud, I wish you the best, I wish you that in the future you win over everyone except me. And to my environment, I know that I have tortured you in these last two weeks. Thanks for your patience.
An hour and a half later, when he enters the press room, the journalists applaud him.
A colleague comments:
-This is not OK.
In response to the applause, Djokovic smiles.
His wife and two children attend the conference. Sitting in a corner, the creatures listen in silence.
–I do not want to say that I am the greatest, it would be a lack of respect for other tennis players and for other athletes. I’m not going to get into that discussion, or who I am or where I can go, says the Serbian talent.
–I still feel motivated to play my best tennis in these types of tournaments. I already think about Wimbledon –he says later, and thus announces that his path has not ended.
“And what are you going to do now?”
It will be time for celebrations. I miss them, I have been very serious for a long time. But I can’t fall asleep either, because the grass is just around the corner, I’ll travel to London soon and start preparing.
(Wimbledon, the title he defends, starts on July 3).
– What do you feel when you think that you are left alone in the race with Nadal and Federer?
–Nadal and Federer have defined me as a player. All the success I’ve had and the analysis I’ve done to figure out how to beat them…both have been on my mind a lot in the last fifteen years, in a sporting sense. It’s wonderful to be part of these 20 years of the Golden Age of Tennis, as people call it.
–And what do you feel about your own numbers?
–When we talk about history, people usually talk about Grand Slams or rankings. I’m up on both stats, and it’s wonderful. I don’t want to think about age, it’s just a number even if it’s a cliché. But now I don’t recover like five years ago, and I feel pain.
Perhaps overwhelmed by the magnitude of the rival, Casper Ruud limits himself to saying:
–All these records and these statistics of Djokovic are really ridiculous, aren’t they?
