MALAGA — Novak Djokovic does not have to be here.
Having just won 10 straight matches to secure the Paris Masters title, the ATP World Tour Finals and year-end world No 1, many would have taken a well-earned winter holiday and flown his family to a far-off clime.
Not Djokovic though, who enjoyed low-key celebrations on Sunday night in Turin with his children before flying, along with his family, to Malaga on Monday for one last assignment.
He had just a day-and-a-half of rest before picking up the racket again and starting training again on Tuesday ahead of Thursday’s quarter-final clash with Great Britain, live on the BBC’s digital platforms.
“One final push is necessary from each one of us, and I’m excited because I have been playing some really good tennis, particularly in the last four months of the season,” Djokovic said.
“I’m grateful to be once again in the national team. As I said many months ago, actually the beginning of the season, Davis Cup has been and is one of my greatest goals of this season and always is.”
A proud Serbian, Djokovic not only talks the talk, he walks the walk. He has played 46 singles matches for Serbia over the years and has turned out for his country at least once in all bar four of his professional seasons. If they go all the way this week and he features throughout, he will overtake Roger Federer’s tally of 48 matches played, and winning two of those would see him outstrip the Swiss great’s 40-8 record in them.
It is probably a moot point. Djokovic’s performances over the last three years have ended the GOAT (Greatest of All Time) debate as a contest, with only the most tribal fans able to claim that the Serb is not the best male player ever with any sort of straight face. His 24 grand slam titles and 400 weeks at world No 1 (and counting) have long since put paid to that. But that does not mean Djokovic is not still hungrily hunting down records.
He will probably never even equal Rafael Nadal’s five Davis Cup titles, but victory in Malaga would give him two to Federer’s one.
Outside of the GOAT “debate”, such as it is, there are deeper reasons behind Djokovic’s passion for national glory. Serbia itself is a relatively new country, at least in political terms. When he first represented them, it was as Serbia & Montenegro, before the latter declared independence in 2006 and Serbia became its own country as it is now. As such, there have been precious few world titles in Serbia’s 17-year history and the 2010 Davis Cup win has special significance because of it.
‘Big Four’ Davis Cup singles record
- Novak Djokovic – 39 wins, 7 losses
- Andy Murray – 33-3
- Roger Federer – 40-8
- Rafael Nadal – 29-1
In the final, Serbia came back from 2-1 down against France to win, Djokovic himself winning both his singles matches before Viktor Troicki, now the team’s captain, sealed victory. Some 17,000 fans nearly lifted the roof off the Belgrade Arena and the whole team shaved the head of federation president Slobodan Zivojinovic (and each other) on the court afterwards as part of a bet. Djokovic has come close since, delivering two points in the 2013 final against the Czechs, but watching his team-mates lose the other three matches to break Serbian hearts in the same arena.
Those legendary, raucous home-and-away ties, replaced by group stages and this week’s knockout last eight in Spain, are dead and gone, according to ITF president David Haggerty. But sources within the organisation are quietly confident that the new format, controversial from the start, is beginning to win over hearts and minds – albeit not that of Djokovic himself.
“I actually personally feel that the best format will be somewhere in between the old one and the new one, but I don’t think that this is best for the nations participating in the World Group,” Djokovic added.
“The fact that we, as a team, have not played in Serbia for many years is not great, because we don’t give an opportunity to people in Serbia to watch us play, especially young people, young tennis players.”
That is another reason Djokovic is so committed to the Davis Cup. For all that he remains the best player in the world, he is not getting any younger and already has one eye on the future, particularly on where his successor is coming from. He built the Novak Tennis Centre in Belgrade and convinced Ion Tiriac to lease them a tournament licence so he could host the Serbia Open there. And however ill-fated the Adria Tour was during peak Covid season, it was with the same idea behind it: growing Serbian tennis.
He is taking a more personal interest too in a man who is his team-mate this week, Hamad Medjedovic. The 20-year-old is already ranked 111 in the world and Djokovic has been helping him out on every level.
“Financially, mentally and socially,” Medjedovic’s father revealed last month.
“I remember a conversation with Novak. We specifically talked about the steps in Hamad’s career. I pinched myself during that conversation to convince myself that all this was happening.
“Imagine, the best player in the world is calling my kid to work together in the preseason, it is like Messi or Ronaldo telling you: ‘Let’s play some football’ or ‘Let me know if you need anything’.”
Such generosity is endearing and in Serbia it enhances Djokovic’s already deity-level popularity. Many believe he will end up in politics after he retires from tennis. Bring another Davis Cup back to Belgrade, and he might as well run for the presidency before he even hangs up his racket.