Novak Djokovic needs new tennis missions. Can the US Open provide this?

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NEW YORK – What motivates Novak Djokovic now that he has nothing left to fight for?

The 24-time Grand Slam champion finally won his coveted Olympic gold medal in Paris this month. In doing so, he effectively completed tennis and captured the one coveted title in the sport that had eluded him. Djokovic has other goals, such as a 25th Grand Slam title that would take him away from Australia’s Margaret Court, but the Olympic gold was the real white whale for a player who has collected trophies as interest.

Not so much lately. He arrived in New York for the first time in 14 years without his name already engraved in one of the three majors.

The most interesting thing is that he has been here before.

In 2016, Djokovic finally won the French Open in Paris. In doing so, he completed the Grand Slam career and became the second male player in the Open Era, after Rod Laver, to hold all four Grand Slam titles simultaneously.

It felt like he would dominate tennis forever. Instead, he bombed Wimbledon against Sam Querrey, then went two years without winning a major in a period that included elbow surgery and some wildly uncharacteristic setbacks, the mother of all comedowns.

“I wasn’t in the right place mentally,” he said later.

In 2024, the first signs are that he is working to prevent a recurrence. Djokovic was asked about his motivation before the tournament started, and he spoke about his rivalry with Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner, his advocacy with the Professional Tennis Players Association (PTPA) and his belief in his competitiveness.

There’s little to take from a 6-2, 6-2, 6-4 first-round cruise against the outmatched Radu Albot, but Djokovic – and the rest of the tennis world – might learn more from what awaits him on Wednesday stands. He will face compatriot Laslo Djere in a repeat of their fourth-round meeting in 2023. Djokovic trailed at love by two sets and eventually came through in five sets on his way to the title.

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Djokovic is in a strange position. He’s coming off what he calls the “greatest performance” of his career, but his season as a whole is more of a low point than a high point. Despite beating Alcaraz to win that Olympic gold, Djokovic has lost to the Spaniard in consecutive Wimbledon finals. Sinner overwhelmed him at the Australian Open, an event where he previously seemed invincible. The rivalry that motivates him has recently not gone according to plan.

Novak Djokovic’s struggles date back to his swing on clay. (Filippo Monteforte/AFP via Getty Images)

This could help Djokovic. He finally has two younger rivals who are on his level, and he will be desperate to reassert himself at the top of the sport, beating them as he has done to so many players over the past decade. He may be the US Open champion, but here in New York it’s reigning French Open and Wimbledon champion Alcaraz who has the biggest target on his back. It is Sinner, and not Djokovic, who is number 1 in the world.

Djokovic loves nothing more than to prove his point and silence those who have written him off. This isn’t like June 2016, when it seemed almost too easy for Djokovic to dominate tennis as he turned the ‘Big Four’ into the ‘Big One’.

Just over eight years ago, there was not even a suggestion that Djokovic’s motivation would wane. In retrospect, it may seem obvious that achieving the Holy Grail in tennis could cause a lull, but at the time that wasn’t the prediction.

Looking back on his pre-Wimbledon press conferences, Djokovic was not asked whether he would compete for new goals. It was only when he suffered the earthquake of defeat against American Sam Querrey that the subject was discussed.

Novak Djokovic’s defeat by American Sam Querrey at Wimbledon is one of the biggest shocks in recent tournament history. (Adrian Dennis/AFP via Getty Images)

“It’s a great feeling to be able to host four Grand Slams at the same time,” Djokovic said that summer. “When I came to Wimbledon, I knew that mentally it won’t be easy to motivate myself again.”

Djokovic has since spoken of an existential crisis during that period.

“I went through a period where I was really looking for myself off the field,” he reflected later. There were a few rain delays during the loss to Querrey, and Djokovic recalls asking his team to leave him alone in a room during one of the stoppages.

“I just looked at the wall and I was boring. There is literally no drive in me,” he said.

In a 2018 interview, he added that the injuries he suffered in the middle of the previous year occurred when he was “experiencing an emotional imbalance.” He parted ways with Boris Becker at the end of 2016 and had broken up his team during the 2017 clay-court season in an attempt to restore his drive to win matches. Djokovic even considered retiring as his motivation disappeared completely.

He has since been able to reframe this difficult period as a valuable learning experience. He even said he was “super happy” to have experienced this. If there was ever a time when that experience would come in handy, it would be now.

At 37, and just months after knee surgery, physical rather than mental challenges may pose the biggest obstacles to Djokovic’s quest for renewed dominance. “I have no limitations in my mind,” he said at Wimbledon. “I still want to continue and play as long as I feel like I can play at this high level.”

During the homecoming celebration in Belgrade that followed the Olympics, Djokovic hinted that he had nothing left to gain. “I feel fulfilled, complete, let’s celebrate!” he said. In the next breath, he opened up the possibility of playing into his 40s and defending his title at the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles.

There are a number of factors in his favor. His children are now at an age where they can see their father in action, which seems to be an added inspiration, as Djokovic cries in their arms in Paris and develops a new and meaningful violin celebration for his daughter.

The Olympic gold was a celebration for the whole family. (Amin Mohammad Jamali/Getty Images)

Above all, he has the sport. One of the great things about being a tennis player is that even when you’ve won everything, there are always new challenges to overcome. New shots to develop, new tactics to try.

Against Albot on Monday, Djokovic certainly looked motivated as he performed some of his party tricks at Arthur Ashe Stadium. The break serve was 40-0 behind. Hitting the forehand harder than seemingly any other point in his career. The second set ended with a second service ace. Why not? A second-round match against Djere on Wednesday may not quite be the Olympic gold medal match, but give Djokovic a court, an opponent and an audience and he will still find a point to prove.

(Top photo: Erick W. Rasco/Sports Illustrated via Getty Images)