Novak Djokovic reached the quarterfinals at the Paris Olympics

Novak Djokovic reached the quarterfinals at the Paris Olympics without losing a single set. The former world number 1 is expressing a good tennis in Paris and continues to dream of winning the first gold medal of his incredible career.Novak Djokovic© Julian Finney / Staff Getty Images Sport

The Serbian champion defeated the Australian Matt Ebden, his eternal rival Rafael Nadal and the German Dominik Koepfer, who caused him some problems in the first set. The 24-time Grand Slam champion is very focused on his goal and does not want to fail again. His next opponent will be Stefanos Tsitsipas, who plays his best tennis on this surface. Nole has won the last ten matches against the Greek and will surely be the favourite tonight on the iconic court Philippe Chatrier.

Djokovic and Tsitsipas faced each other in the 2021 French Open final, when Novak prevailed by coming back two sets behind. The Greek admitted that he had been hard-taught by the Serbian and will try his best to break this taboo. Unlike in previous Olympics, Djokovic has changed his approach to Paris. The former world number 1 decided not to stay in the Olympic village to avoid distractions and gave up any form of doubles. Novak Djokovic has admitted several times that winning the gold medal for Serbia is one of his greatest dreams. Although he is not going through the best moment of his career, Nole should never be underestimated in major tournaments.

Viktor Troicki on Nole Djokovic

During a recent interview with Clay, former ATP ace and Serbian captain Viktor Troicki opened up on Djokovic: “He made a mistake playing mixed doubles in Tokyo. I think he also lost energy playing mixed doubles for no reason. It was extremely h*t there and here he’s only focused on the singles title and he’s doing everything to accomplish it. That’s one of the many mistakes he learned from. He’s like this. He’s stubborn sometimes.

Even if everyone tells him you shouldn’t play, if he thinks he should play, he will do it. And will try to prove everyone wrong. And he was close. He was close. It was a huge experience for him, you know, 6-1, 2-1 with the break, against Zverev in the semi-finals. Everything going well, everything. But he’s also a human. Zverev started playing better. He started feeling a little bit of pressure and at the end it cost him the match. He won so many big titles, but this was the first time he felt the goal was there, so close. I think here in Paris he’s more relaxed, more focused on the things he needs to do. Here he has family with him, kids are with him. So I think he feels better here mentally and that is the most important thing for him at this moment.”

Thanks to his victory against Koepfer yesterday, Djokovic became the first player in history to reach the quarterfinals in four different editions of the Olympics. Nole is enjoying this experience to the full and he is ready for the next challenge: “It is a great honour to represent my country at the Olympics. It’s an incredible sporting competition. We play Roland Garros in this stadium but everything is different and in the good sense of the term. Although the French Open audience is also great and passionate about tennis, the Olympic public is different. People from all over the world come and travel to support their respective nations and athletes in their countries. I think there are so many different people from different nationalities and it’s just beautiful to see.”

Nole will face Tsitsipas

Djokovic will have to pay close attention to Tsitsipas, who has achieved the best results of his career on these courts. The Greek can be very dangerous on red clay and will come out on the court with nothing to lose. “I wouldn’t expect anything less from Novak” – Stefanos explained. ”I can see that he’s motivated for this edition of the Olympics and I want to get out on the court and show that I’m a worthy player on the clay courts.

I want to make any opponent that I play work for their win and work for every single point that I try and give to them. I’ve gained confidence, I’ve gained a lot of motivation being on these courts. I felt that I could’ve won the Roland Garros a few years ago. I didn’t but I felt like I was really close and had every reason to believe that this could be mine one day” – he added.