Davis Cup: Novak Djokovic hungry as ever

Malaga, November 21

World No. 1 Novak Djokovic will seek to complete one of the best seasons of his incredible career by leading Serbia to the Davis Cup title for a second time.

Serbia are one of the eight surviving nations from September’s group phase and will face Britain on Thursday.

Action begins with reigning champions Canada taking on Finland, while Czech Republic are up against Australia and Italy against Netherlands.

Djokovic reached all four Grand Slam finals this year, winning three of them to move past Rafa Nadal to a record 24 Major titles. On Sunday, he beat Italy’s Jannik Sinner to win a record seventh ATP Finals title.

But Djokovic is not finished yet and the 36-year-old would like nothing more than leading Serbia to the men’s team prize for the first time since 2010 when he was instrumental in a memorable victory against France in Belgrade.

“The season is not finished yet. I really would like to win the Davis Cup with Serbia. That’s a goal. It’s an important week for us, for our nation. We’ll do our best,” he said.

Serbia’s task has been made a little easier with injuries ruling out Dan Evans and Andy Murray from Britain’s line-up, although they still have world No. 18 Cameron Norrie and youngster Jack Draper in the squad as well as a strong doubles line-up including world No. 3 Neal Skupski. — Reuters

Eye on Golden Slam

Novak Djokovic wants a clean sweep of the Majors next year as well as the singles gold medal at the Paris Olympics. Steffi Graf is the only player to have achieved the ‘Golden Slam’ in 1988. “Well, you can win four slams and an Olympics gold,” Djokovic said. “I have always the highest ambitions and goals. That’s not going to be different for the next year. The drive that I have is still there.”