{"id":965535,"date":"2024-07-13T08:56:36","date_gmt":"2024-07-13T08:56:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost:8888\/dm-simulator-v2\/?p=965535"},"modified":"2024-07-13T08:56:36","modified_gmt":"2024-07-13T08:56:36","slug":"djokovic-ready-to-live-up-to-his-own-lofty-expectations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/elections.sabc.co.za\/elections2024\/djokovic-ready-to-live-up-to-his-own-lofty-expectations\/","title":{"rendered":"Djokovic ready to live up to his own lofty expectations"},"content":{"rendered":"
Without a title for over six months, Novak Djokovic<\/a> is now within touching distance of a record 25th Grand Slam trophy, with the all-conquering Serb saying Wimbledon always brings the best out of him.<\/div>\n
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For a champion who has become accustomed to trampling over the opposition while amassing almost 100 titles in his career, this lean spell is not something he is used to.<\/div>\n
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The 37-year-old lost in his Australian Open fortress at the start of the year, with his bid to win a record-extending 11th Melbourne Park title cut short in the semi-finals.<\/div>\n
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A knee injury then prematurely ended his French Open title defence last month.<\/div>\n
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So when he reached the All England Club final after a 6-4 7-6(2) 6-4 win over Lorenzo Musetti Friday, he was finally living up to his own lofty expectations.<\/div>\n
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Standing in his way to an eighth Wimbledon crown that will see him equal Roger Federer’s mark is Spaniard Carlos Alcaraz, who beat Djokovic in last year’s title clash.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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“I’m aware that Roger holds eight Wimbledons. I hold seven. History is on the line. Also, the 25th potential Grand Slam. It serves as a great motivation, but at the same time it’s also a lot of pressure and expectations,” Djokovic told reporters.<\/div>\n
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“Every time I step out on the court now, though I’m 37 and competing with 21-year-olds, I still expect myself to win most of the matches, and people expect me to win, whatever, 99% of the matches that I play.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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“I always have to come out on court and perform my best to still be at the level with Carlos or Jannik (Sinner) or Sascha (Alexander Zverev) or Daniil (Medvedev).”<\/div>\n
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After winning three of the four majors last season, Djokovic has endured a disappointing run of form this year with injuries adding to his woes.<\/div>\n
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In fact for a while it looked like he would not be able to compete at this year’s Wimbledon after requiring knee surgery on a torn meniscus just five weeks ago.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Djokovic is now within touching distance of a record 25th Grand Slam trophy<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":58,"featured_media":965536,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[225],"tags":[1187,1188,886,1189],"class_list":["post-965535","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sport","tag-all-england-club","tag-french-open","tag-novak-djokovic","tag-tennis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/elections.sabc.co.za\/elections2024\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/965535","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/elections.sabc.co.za\/elections2024\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/elections.sabc.co.za\/elections2024\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/elections.sabc.co.za\/elections2024\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/58"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/elections.sabc.co.za\/elections2024\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=965535"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/elections.sabc.co.za\/elections2024\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/965535\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/elections.sabc.co.za\/elections2024\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/965536"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/elections.sabc.co.za\/elections2024\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=965535"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/elections.sabc.co.za\/elections2024\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=965535"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/elections.sabc.co.za\/elections2024\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=965535"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}