Refreshed Djokovic optimistic to repeat 2011
After such a year, what could 2012 possibly bring for the defending champion? It couldn’t happen again, surely?
“It’s going to be very difficult to repeat what I have done,” Djokovic admitted, speaking to the press ahead of his opening match in Melbourne. “But look, I’ve done it once. Why not twice? Why not staying optimistic and positive about the whole season?”
That may sound like lunacy, but if anything got Djokovic to where he is now, it was belief in himself. And that belief certainly hasn’t wandered off in the off-season.
“I was building that confidence with every trophy that I have won,” he revealed. “Like everything in life, in tennis as well, you need to have a high confidence level. When you’re playing on it, it feels like nothing can stop you.”
Perhaps unusually, Djokovic chose not to compete in the first week of the 2012 season, didn’t return to Perth, as he had done in 2011, didn’t play in Brisbane with Andy Murray, or in Doha with Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal.
But let that not suggest anything about his level of preparation. The way he was battering the ball at the Abu Dhabi exhibition just after Christmas suggests he is more than ready to mount a title defence here in Melbourne.
“I had a lot of time to recover, a lot of time to prepare,” he said. “I had two weeks of the real rest without racquet, without physical involvement. I had time to reflect on what I have achieved in 2011.”
Time has not permitted any real changes of modifications to his game, but the biggest lesson Djokovic says he has learned from 2011 is the need to rest.
“I need to have just the right thinking towards rest as much as I have towards the work,” he said. “I don’t think in general my game should be changed or that I should take any major changes in it. I just think that I have to keep that consistency of performing well, work on some things, maybe to get more often to the net, work on my serve a little bit more, that variety of the serve.”
Besides trying to repeat the feats of 2011, there is one very big item on the 2012 agenda for Djokovic. The Olympics at London, where he intends to play in singles and doubles.
“I had the privilege and honour to represent my country in 2008 Beijing Olympics. It was a remarkable experience. So it’s one of my biggest priorities. But my focus is directed to this tournament. I want to start off the year well.”
Who knows what a good stint at Melbourne Park could springboard the Serb to this time.
SOURCE: Australian Open official website.
