the serbian Novak Djokovic ensured this Sunday, after a strong victory over the Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov by 6-3, 4-6 and 6-1, which he believes is getting closer to the level he wants.
“Playing against Grigor is always a challenge. I know he will show all his quality. He has been one of the players on the circuit for many years,” the world number two acknowledged at a press conference, who will not be in Madrid for injury and is now preparing in Rome for Roland Garros.
“I think I’m getting closer to the level I want. Of course you can always play better, but today I had a very good quality opponent and I think I delivered in almost every match, except in the last four games of the second set. Apart from that, I think I’ve been very solid, I’ve served well and I’ve moved well. When I had opportunities, I took advantage of them”, he explained.
“Overall, a very solid performance and definitely a better level than the first game. Hopefully I can continue the same trajectory next time,” he added.
This year, the Rome Masters 1,000, which normally lasts a week, will last twelve days in total.
“The schedule this year is different than the other years I played in Rome. Obviously, with a long duration of the tournament, you have a day off between games, which in a way is good because you have a chance to recover better and to train”, he explained.
Novak Djokovic was once again annoyed by the public support for Grigor Dimitrov in his 3rd round match, but in his press conference he launched another mockery of the organization of the Masters 1,000 in Rome by commenting on the poor quality of the tracks, too difficult and dry.
“Roma has never had a good reputation for track quality, to be honest. I know all the managers for 15 years, I get along well with them and I can’t blame them for it,” said he.
“But the interesting thing would be to know how much tennis they are playing on the court before the tournament. I think last year I was asking and they were not playing much, just the previous phases,” he analyzed.
“If you don’t use the track and it’s clay, these things happen. The track breaks. You have a lot of holes. You have an irregular surface, very bad rebounds and a lot of clay,” he explained.
“I remember that about 10 years ago someone told me that they brought people from Roland Garros and that year the track was better. I don’t know why they are not called again because they are the best clay court specialist in the world,” he said.
“I had the feeling that these days while training, the quality of court no. 5 is better than the center court because it is played more,” he said.
Source: La Verdad
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