If regaining the World No. 1 position from Andy Murray is high on Novak Djokovic’s list of priorities, he will need to find his form quickly.
The Serbian who faced a slum in form in the second half of the season yesterday denied his game was in ‘crisis’.
“I don’t see the second six months of 2016 as a failure or anything like that. It’s not in my mindset, I guess, in my philosophy of life to observe things in this way. That I didn’t succeed; that I failed; that I’ve fallen or something like that,” Djokovic said on the eve of the Qatar Exxonmobnil Open which begins in Doha today.
Familiar foes Murray and Djokovic are poised to pick up where they left off to conclude 2016.
Both the top ranked players begin their season in Qatar.
Djokovic begins his title defence today against Germany's Jan-Lennard Struff, while Murray's first round match is against France's Jeremy Chardy tomorrow. The Briton however will see action in the doubles today.
Last year, Djokovic who last year honed his game in readiness for the Australian Open in Qatar, which he has won six times in the last nine years, began the season by winning the Qatar tournament and was dominating the ATP Tour and there was much talk of him winning all four Grand Slams in 2016.
But after having the Australian Open and French Open in his kitty the Serb season faced a slump, with a third round loss at the Wimbledon and a loss to in the final of the US Open.
Djokovic insisted his mini-slump was a blessing in disguise.
“I just feel like every experience is a blessing one way or another.
“I felt like the second six months of the year were very valuable, because I was always saying that you can learn a lot more from your lost tennis matches. Then you can really sit down, dig deep, and really figure out what are the things that you can do better.
“So that’s how I felt. I definitely don’t see it as an unsuccessful year. I don’t see it as a crisis. I don’t see it as any of that.
“I actually see it as a great, I would say incentive, challenge, experience that has helped me to rise and hopefully get even stronger, get even better, and keep going.”
