After winning the gold medal at the Paris Olympic Games 2024, Novak Djokovic completed the Career Golden Slam, winning the last title that was not yet in his incredible collection of trophies.
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Right at the end of the Olympics, his father Srdjan turned to his son and tried to push him to retire, but Nole, as he explained in an interview with GQ Italia, has no intention of giving tennis a farewell.
"I don't know if he'll be happy for me to reveal it. But I'll say it anyway. It all starts with my father. He's been trying to retire me for a while now, but without being intrusive. He respects my decision to continue. And obviously he understands why I don't want to stop, but it's as if he's saying: What else do you want to prove?
He knows the amount and intensity of pressure and tension in the environment. Not to mention the stress that affects my health, my body and, consequently, everyone around me, including him. That's why he advised me: My son, start thinking about a way to end this story," he explained.
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The Serbian champion then revealed some of the reasons that could push him towards a different path.
"I keep thinking about how and when I want to finish. No, I take it all back. I think more about how than when. As for when, I don't think about it that intensely yet. How would I like to finish? I guess if I start losing too many times, feeling a bigger gap with my opponents and having more difficulty overcoming the real obstacles in the Slams, then I would probably finish.
But for now, I'm fine and I'm continuing to move forward. "Tennis is still my biggest megaphone to the world. Yeah, I mean, if you look at it just from the perspective of completing the goals and improving my game, then yeah, I think I've completed tennis!" he added.
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The 24 times Slamchampion still believes he can fight against the new generation.
"Whether publicly or privately, a lot of people have told me that they think it's better to quit when you're at your peak, and I understand that, don't get me wrong, I understand that. But if I am still physically capable of competing and I feel I can beat the best players in the world at the Slams, why should I stop now?" he analyzed with great honesty.
