After compiling another all-time great season, Novak Djokovic returns to the ATP World Tour this week feeling healthy and eager to rediscover his best level. The top seed at this week's Shanghai Rolex Masters will go for his fourth title in the Chinese city – 2012-13, 2015 – and his fifth Masters 1000 title of the season.
But Djokovic will look to achieve that success with a different mindset than he possessed earlier in the year. Since completing the career Grand Slam by winning Roland Garros in June, Djokovic said he has struggled to enjoy his time on the court. After winning Roland Garros, he said, “I was obviously very content, but on the other hand I was also very exhausted and I needed some time to recover, to regroup.”
To help that process, Djokovic is changing his focus, from winning titles to simply enjoying his time on the court.
“My approach is just different,” he said during his pre-tournament press conference. “The last three months were up and down, a little bit with oscillations, but generally I didn't find that kind of satisfaction on the court, which is the very reason and the source of my motivation to play tennis... So that's my priority now, to get back into that inner joy and really feeling happy for being on the court, and everything else comes second and behind that.”
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He has had plenty to enjoy this season. The Serbian has won seven tour-level titles and compiled a 56-6 record. But the World No. 1 hasn't been the last one standing at a tournament since July, when he beat Kei Nishikori at the Rogers Cup final in Toronto. Djokovic reached the US Open final last month in New York but fell in four sets to Stan Wawrinka.
The Belgrade native isn't worried about the past few months, though. He said he feels healthy again. His left wrist bothered him before the US Open, and he withdrew from last week's China Open in Beijing because of an elbow injury.
“Everything is fine,” he said. “Glad that I'm back in Shanghai, and I have been practising the last couple of weeks and trying to get myself in the right competitive mode, which I think is something that I'm going to reach this week, next week.”
Few players have had more success in China than Djokovic. He's won 38 of his past 39 matches in China and owns a 24-3 record at the Shanghai Rolex Masters.
“I'm happy to be back in Shanghai,” he said. “The only way I can predict the future is to create the future. I try to create a future for myself by being in the present moment. I don't try to think what has happened before or what's coming later on. I believe that in this very moment. This kind of thinking and mindset is the best for me.”