Avoiding vaccination against the coronavirus cost no one more than Novak Djokovic. After an unnecessary charade, he was deported from Australia and was prevented from defending his title at the tournament of which he is the record holder, which Rafael Nadal used to break out into 1st place in terms of the number of Grand Slam titles won.
The Serbian ace then could not even participate in the first part of the American tour, which is why he did not meet Roland Garros in adequate form, where the King of Clay knocked him out in the quarterfinals and paved the way to the 22nd cup in the biggest tournaments.
As things stand now, the 35-year-old from Belgrade will not be able to perform at the US Open because he has not been vaccinated, so before the 135th edition of Wimbledon, which opens today on the Central Court at 13.30:XNUMX p.m. against the Korean Sunwoo Kwon, he has no choice - he has to lift cup or he will have no chance to be the best tennis player of all time by all parameters.
Djokovic spent the most time on the 1st place of the ATP list, probably his 373 weeks at the top will never be reached, but after the performance at the famous address SW19, he will drop to the 7th position. Namely, the ATP and WTA have decided that the points at Wimbledon will not be counted because due to the war in Ukraine, competitors from Russia and Belarus are prohibited from participating, so Djokovic will drop to only 4.770. He will be threatened by Nadal, Stefanos Tsitsipas, Kasper Rud and Carlos Alkaras, who will follow Danilo Medvedev and Aleksander Zverev.
If he does not play the second part of the tour in North America, i.e. masters in Montreal and Cincinnati, as well as the US open, Nole will drop out of the Top 10 and most likely will not be able to reach the ATP championship. However, he has suppressed all that now because he has only one goal - to lift one of the most beautiful and valuable cups in the world for the seventh time.
- It will affect other players more than me. I don't want to say that points are not important to me, but they are not like before. I'm not fighting for the ranking like before when I wanted to break Federer's record, so it's not a priority for me. I was not able to defend 4.000 points in Australia and here. It affects me, but my priorities are different - said the winner of 20 Grand Slam cups.
As things stand now, Nole will not be able to perform in New York, unless the US changes the rules regarding the entry of unvaccinated foreigners. That's why he has an additional motive in London.
- Under the current conditions, I cannot enter the United States. I am aware of that, it is an additional motivation for me to do the work here. I hope to play as well as in the last three editions, defend the title, and then go to the USA - said Djokovic.
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If he becomes champion again, the Serbian tennis player will become only the fourth player in the open era to win four consecutive titles at Wimbledon, along with Federer, Pete Sampras and Björn Borg. At the same time, he has a chance to tie for second place on the all-time list with Sampras and William Renshaw with his seventh title, behind Fedex with eight.
- I would like to lift the trophy again. Sampras winning his first title at Wimbledon is the first match I watched on TV, there are many things that connect me to this tournament. Pete won it seven times, I hope I can do it this year too - said the number one seed.
Bookmakers have no dilemma as to who is the first favorite, because the odds on Novak are 1,83. Second is current vice-champion Matteo Beretini with 6,50, and third is Nadal with 9, who could meet the Italian in the semi-finals.
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