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Novak Djokovic, Tennis News

Grand Slams shouldn’t be main factor in GOAT debate, suggests Novak Djokovic


Novak Djokovic says that although he wants to break the Grand Slam record, the historic world number one would be a more meaningful accolade.

Djokovic will equal Pete Sampras’ year-end world number one count this year and is likely to surpass Roger Federer for total weeks at the top of the rankings in March.

He has been completely honest about his career goals to break all three records, but he believes he may be o the verge of the most significant one.

“Grand Slams are historically the most significant tournaments in our sport, there is no doubt about that,” Djokovic told reporters at the Vienna Open.

“Winning a Slam is like winning a world championship, only we have that opportunity four times a year. Those are two exhausting weeks in every sense for every one of us.

“Slams are the pinnacle of our sport and absolutely everyone player tries to be at his best when Slams come. That is what makes them so essential and so challenging.

“On the other hand, you could argue that a player has a greater chance of blossoming, playing tennis of his life in those two weeks and winning a Slam compared to the odds of a player maintaining that rhythm and level of play throughout the year, which would make him the world number one at the end of the season.

“That is why the historic number on is the biggest goal of mine at the moment, because I know how demanding it is.

“It is perhaps the ultimate goal because you need to be at your very best for every tournament, not just the Slams.

“And you need to do it within an extremely competitive environment.

“But again – I do not feel comfortable commenting on who is the GOAT. I will leave that to others.”


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Michael Graham, Tennishead.net Editor, has been a professional sports journalist for his whole career and is especially passionate about tennis. He's been the Editor of Tennishead.net for over 5 years and loves watching live tennis by visiting as many tournaments as possible. Michael specialises in writing in-depth features about the ATP & WTA tours.