A month and a half after his historic 24th Grand Slam crown, world No.1 Novak Djokovic begins his home series of the season at the Masters 1000 in Paris starting on Monday, ahead of the Turin Masters in mid-November.
After her 24th major title – an all-time record equaled by Australia’s Margaret Court – which she won at the United States Open in mid-September, “Nole” received such an unforgettable and rousing reception in Belgrade, on the balcony of the town hall with his colleague . basketball world runner-up, who was moved to tears.
He then made a victorious foray into the Davis Cup in Valencia, Spain, before hitting the pause button for six weeks.
We saw him at the end of September, the tennis racket swapped for a golf club, but he was still a competitor at heart: he was the one who won a celebrity event held on the sidelines of the Ryder Cup near Rome, associated with a former Welsh footballer Gareth Bale, supervised by Scotland’s Colin Montgomery, former world No. 2 golfer.
Pre-season preparation
“I’m not at the same level in golf as I am in tennis,” he smiled at a press conference on Saturday, however, as he approaches the dizzying milestone of 400 weeks on the world tennis throne (he will begin his 397th on Monday).
Despite skipping the Asian tour, Djokovic is not yet twiddling his thumbs: in addition to resuming training for the end of the season, the 30-year-old Serb has spent some of the last few weeks already starting his pre-season preparations . for 2024, he explained.
Until then, at home in eastern Paris, where he holds the title record with six wins (2009, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2019 and 2021), the outgoing finalist will continue his duel for the No. 1 world championship at the end. of the year against his young rival Carlos Alcaraz.
Only five hundred points separate the two players in the match, the ranking established for the calendar year (8,945 points for Djokovic to 8,445 for Alcaraz).
From Beijing (semi-final) to Shanghai (round of 16) in the fall, “Carlitos” didn’t really take advantage of “Djoko’s” absence, bringing only 270 points from Asia. And the 20-year-old Spaniard, whose leg and back are creaking, has just stopped playing in Basel.
Training with Alcaraz
Both exempt from the first round, the two rivals trained together on Sunday afternoon.
Djokovic will start his tournament with either compatriot Miomir Kecsmanovic (55th) or Argentina’s Tomas Martin Etcheverry (32nd), while Alcaraz will start with France’s Alexander Muller (84th) or a player from the qualifiers.
In an extremely dense field with the entire top 15 there, a restart of the 2022 final is potentially looming for the Serb with Denmark’s Holger Rune from the quarter-finals and, in the previous round, an electrifying head-to-head with young American Ben Shelton .
Rune, in fact, is one of the players looking for one of the last three tickets still up for grabs for the Masters that will bring together the top 8 of the season from November 12 to 19 in Turin (Italy).
Five players already officially have their entry in their pocket: Djokovic, Alcaraz, Daniil Medvedev, Yannick Shiner and Andrei Rublev. Stefanos Tsitsipas is holding tight for sixth place and Alexander Zverev and Rune are the two best at the moment for the bottom two.
