With 24 Grand Slam titles to his name, Novak Djokovic is considered one of the greatest tennis players of all time and that did not happen overnight.
Just five years after making his professional debut, Djokovic ended Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal’s streak of 11 consecutive Majors in 2008 by winning his first Grand Slam title in Australia.
Since then, the Serb has been writing history and there seems to be nothing or no one to stop him.
The 24-time Grand Slam triumphant is still going strong at the age of 36 as he played all four Majors finals this year and won three — Australian Open, French Open and US Open — and lost one, Wimbledon.
The Serb became the only player to win three Majors four times in a calendar year, overtaking Federer who did it three times in his majestic career.
When asked how he managed to keep himself motivated over all these years, the Serb named one key quality, which he described as a reinvention.
“There are always changes happening, literally on a weekly to monthly basis in my approach to training, to recovery to mental training,” stated Djokovic.
“There’s always something that I’m trying to add so that I can up my performance in my game, you know, at least for a few per cent.
“When you find it, you know, the biggest I feel like, one of the biggest lessons I have learned probably mentally throughout my career is that, you know, even if you find a formula that works, it’s not a guarantee, and actually most likely it’s not going to work the next year.”
After competing with the likes of Federer, Nadal and Murray for over 10 years, the Serb is now going head to head against players like Carlos Alcaraz, Daniil Medvedev and others who are almost half his age, which, according to him, motivates him more.
“You need to reinvent yourself because everyone else does,” he added.
“As a 36-year-old competing with 20-year-olds, I probably have to do it more than I have ever done it in order to keep my body in shape, in order to be able to recover so that I can perform on the highest level consistently.”
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