Novak Djokovic confident about his French Open chances despite Italian Open setback
Novak Djokovic suffered a shock exit at the 2023 Italian Open on Wednesday, falling to Holger Rune in the quarterfinals.
The Serb faced his second consecutive defeat at the hands of Rune, losing 2-6, 6-4, 2-6 in an encounter that delivered a lot of on-court drama to the fans in Rome. The loss means Djokovic will be showing up the French Open, the season's second Grand Slam, without a single title on clay to boast of this season.
Regardless, the 22-time Grand Slam champion remains confident of his chances at Roland Garros, saying so at his press conference at the Italian Open following his loss to Rune.
"Yes," Djokovic answered in response to a question about whether he was still confident for the French Open.
The World No. 1 went on to declare that he always liked his chances at Grand Slams, as he felt confident of taking on anyone on any surface in best-of-five clashes. At the same time, the Serb admitted that he will put in the hard work in training between now and the beginning of the Clay Major at the end of May.
"Nothing. I mean, just training and getting ready for the most important tournament of the clay season for me. I know I can always play better. Definitely am looking forward to working on various aspects of my game, of my body, hopefully getting myself in 100% shape. That's the goal. I always like my chances in Grand Slams against anybody on any surface, best-of-five. Let's see how it goes," he said.
As for the favorites in Roland Garros, the 35-year-old picked Holger Rune and Carlos Alcaraz alongside himself, adding that 14-time winner Rafael Nadal shouldn't be counted out either even if he hasn't played any competitive tennis in a while.
"It depends if Nadal plays or not," Djokovic joked. "But next to him of course Alcaraz, Rune, these guys are right there in the contention, some of the biggest favorites to win the title."
"It's also good for our sport that we have new faces, new guys coming up" - Novak Djokovic
Novak Djokovic further spoke about the arrival of the new generation in men's tennis during the press conference, remarking that it was good for the sport to see the rise of youngsters like Holger Rune and Carlos Alcaraz.
Regardless, the 22-time Grand Slam champion declared that he will try his best to hang with them, noting that he still had the same hunger to win despite being much older than them.
"Yeah, obviously, a new generation is here already. I mean, Alcaraz is No. 1 in the world from Monday. Obviously he's playing amazing tennis. I think it's also good for our sport that we have new faces, new guys coming up. It's normal. We've been saying this for years, that we can expect it to come, that moment to come when you have kind of shift of generations," he said.
"I'm personally still trying to hang in there with all of them. I'm happy with - of course, very happy with - my career so far. I still have the hunger to keep going. Let's see how far I'm going to play," he added.