Novak Djokovic est arrivé tardivement à Roland-Garros. En manque de sensations, le Serbe était en Suisse pour disputer l'ATP 250 de Genève, où il a une nouvelle fois été éliminé en demi-finales vendredi, par Tomas Machac. Avec trois matchs disputés là-bas, Nole a pu reprendre un peu de rythme mais ne s'est pas rassuré. Il n'a toujours pas disputé la moindre finale en 2024. Depuis 2006, Nole avait toujours joué une finale avant le Grand Chelem parisien, sauf en 2018. Cette année est donc très particulière. Tenant du titre, Djokovic joue pourtant sa place de n°1 mondial durant cette quinzaine. S'il n'atteint pas au moins la finale, Jannik Sinner montera sur le trône. Pour son entrée en lice, l'homme aux 24 titres du Grand Chelem se frottera à un Français, Pierre-Hugues Herbert.
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00:00 [MUSIC PLAYING]
00:02 [SIDE CONVERSATION]
00:27 Novak, how do you feel mentally considering your results
00:31 on clay this year?
00:34 Mentally for the tournament here?
00:37 Yes.
00:38 OK.
00:40 Well, low expectations and high hopes.
00:42 I'm sorry, you have to give to the next person.
00:48 Thank you.
00:49 Yes.
00:51 Hi, Novak.
00:52 Maybe a similar question, but in general this year,
00:56 you have not played as much as you usually would
00:59 or had as much success as you're used to by this point
01:03 in the season.
01:04 Do either of those things affect you coming into this tournament?
01:09 And you sort of touched on this just now,
01:12 but perhaps could elaborate a little on it.
01:16 Normally, you think of yourself, it
01:18 seems like, as somebody who's a favorite to win
01:21 any tournament you enter.
01:22 Do you feel that way coming back here this time?
01:27 Well, I would say that I know that what I'm capable of,
01:30 and particularly the Grand Slams,
01:32 I normally play the best tennis.
01:38 And at least I aim always to play the best tennis.
01:41 And I was, for most of my career, able to do that.
01:46 So that's the goal.
01:48 And I've been saying for quite a while that, in terms of clay,
01:54 I want to peak here in Paris, in Roland Garros.
01:57 And last year I had an amazing year, particularly here
02:03 in Roland Garros.
02:04 And hopefully I can have a great tournament.
02:07 Of course, it does affect me, the five months
02:12 that I had so far in a year that haven't been great,
02:15 in terms of my tennis.
02:18 And that's why I have a kind of an approach that
02:24 is focused on a daily basis, more trying
02:26 to build the form and momentum so that I can have a better
02:31 chance to reach further in the tournament.
02:36 Max, and then Bill.
02:37 Hey, Novak.
02:42 So what have you drawn on during these five months,
02:47 in terms of your experiences?
02:49 You've experienced just about everything in your career,
02:52 ups and downs.
02:53 And are there other periods that you've thought about,
02:55 and sort of where you found your way out of holes
03:00 that have come to mind and could potentially provide a road
03:05 upwards this time?
03:08 I wouldn't call them holes.
03:09 They're rather bumps on the road.
03:13 I've always looked ahead.
03:16 What is the next challenge?
03:18 And what it takes for me to be better than I was last week.
03:23 So that's the kind of a mindset that I keep nurturing and keep
03:28 having.
03:29 So it probably won't stop until I stop
03:32 playing professional tennis.
03:34 I mean, that's the only way I know
03:36 how to conduct myself as a professional tennis player,
03:41 and also compete at the highest level.
03:45 As I previously answered, I know what my qualities are.
03:50 I know what I'm capable of.
03:51 And if I have the right conditions in terms
03:56 of the way I feel physically, mentally, game-wise--
04:01 and then, of course, you need some luck as well.
04:03 And on a given day when you're playing matches
04:07 against the best players in the world,
04:10 that things come together and you win a slam.
04:14 I've experienced that 24 times in my career
04:17 and many other finals and semifinals.
04:22 So I know exactly what I need to do in Grand Slams environment
04:27 or Grand Slam competition, so to say.
04:31 It's a whole different type of tournament and a feel
04:36 for the tournament than any other, really,
04:41 tournaments that we have in the calendar.
04:43 So yeah, that's kind of it.
04:49 Novak, you have spoken about how important resilience
04:52 has been in your career.
04:55 Can you just mention the one or two points in your career
04:59 where you really felt you were the most resilient?
05:02 And does that give you particular satisfaction?
05:05 And what do you need to be so resilient?
05:09 I mean, resilience is definitely always very much needed in life
05:16 in general for anybody.
05:19 Life throws different challenges at you.
05:25 I mean, in this case, as a professional tennis player,
05:29 you have to kind of be more accustomed to losses than wins.
05:37 And if you have a season or two or three or four,
05:41 whatever, in your career where your winning percentage
05:46 of the tournaments that you play is more than 50%,
05:50 you're lucky.
05:51 Because most of the tournaments you play, percentage-wise,
05:54 you're lower than 50% of winning in a year.
05:58 So that's what you have to accept and adapt to,
06:03 the feeling of failing or losing most of the times,
06:09 most of the tournaments where you participate in a year.
06:12 And then you have to face injuries, et cetera,
06:15 in a career that is long.
06:17 I mean, in this instance of my career, I don't know,
06:22 one major injury-- thankfully, I didn't
06:23 have too many major injuries.
06:25 But one that I had was in--
06:28 kind of started in 2016, but then carried on to '17,
06:32 where I took six months off.
06:34 And then in early '18, I had surgery of my elbow.
06:38 And that has alternated my biomechanics
06:41 for the serve, my technique.
06:43 I had to completely readjust my game.
06:46 And I dropped the rankings out of top 20.
06:51 So then I had to build the rankings
06:55 and kind of start over again.
06:58 So I've had several of these particular situations
07:03 in my career where I had to kind of find a fresh start,
07:09 so to say.
07:11 And I was managing to do it in some instances earlier,
07:16 in some instances a bit later.
07:19 But I was managing to find the right game, the right mindset.
07:24 And yes, so I'll try to use that kind of particular experiences
07:29 that I had.
07:30 I mean, when it comes to experience,
07:32 I think I have quite a lot of experience.
07:35 I'm playing on the tour and experienced, really,
07:38 as you said, highs and lows and ups and downs
07:40 and various things.
07:42 So I'll try to use that in a positive way,
07:45 in a positive fashion for this tournament
07:47 and the rest of the season.
07:50 Hendovac?
07:51 No, no, no.
07:51 It was Ketri.
07:52 Ketri.
07:52 Hi, Hendovac.
07:57 Just on the low expectations, high hopes things,
08:00 how low are we talking?
08:01 And when was the last time those expectations were
08:04 this low going into a major?
08:08 It's tough to talk about.
08:10 It's very subjective.
08:11 And I almost feel a bit embarrassed
08:15 to say what my expectations are.
08:20 Anything but a title, for me, is not satisfactory.
08:24 So it always has been like that.
08:27 And I know it might sound arrogant to a lot of people,
08:32 but I think I have the career that backs it up.
08:35 And in a way, me playing still at this highest level,
08:42 one of the major reasons is trying
08:44 to write more history of the sport
08:46 and win the biggest titles that--
08:51 Paris is definitely one of them.
08:53 So that's why my hopes and goals are always the same.
08:57 But I have to lower the expectations.
08:59 And when I say that, I mean maybe not thinking too much
09:05 ahead in advance in terms of the tournament
09:08 and who I might face in the later rounds,
09:11 but really taking it day by day, step by step,
09:14 and really building my game.
09:15 Because that's what I have been struggling with,
09:18 not really playing on a consistently good level.
09:21 So I obviously need that in order
09:25 to have any chance to go to the final match.
09:29 Hi, David.
09:37 Will you be watching Nadal's forev tomorrow?
09:39 And what do you expect from that match?
09:43 Well, yes.
09:46 If I don't have anything smarter to do at that point,
09:49 I'll definitely watch.
09:50 I don't know.
09:51 Are they playing night session?
09:53 Day session?
09:54 Well, that will make it a bit more difficult for me
09:56 because I have obligations during the day.
09:59 But I will try to catch as much as I can from that match.
10:03 I think everyone will want to see what will happen.
10:08 Last one, Kyle.
10:10 Kyle.
10:12 Sorry, I can't help her.
10:13 Hi, Novak.
10:17 Just wondering how you feel physically
10:19 because you were struggling in Geneva.
10:21 And it seems this year it's been a bit up and down.
10:23 Have you point out a reason why you've
10:25 been struggling to find your peak?
10:27 Because you're used to finding it usually pretty much
10:29 at this period.
10:30 Yeah.
10:31 Well, it's various things that were happening
10:36 in the last couple of months.
10:37 But I don't want to get into it.
10:39 Hope you understand that.
10:40 I just don't want to open the Pandora box
10:44 and talk about things.
10:47 Just really try to focus myself on what needs to be done,
10:51 what has happened, happened.
10:54 And it's in the past.
10:56 It's something that I can't affect anymore.
11:03 But I can learn to rectify certain things
11:07 and right certain things that are wrong and really not
11:13 serving the purpose of my highest performance level.
11:17 So that's what we've been working on as a team.
11:21 And hopefully, it will give us good results here.
11:25 [MUSIC PLAYING]