By Richard Pagliaro | Thursday, October 2, 2025
Photo credit: US Open
Novak Djokovic makes his return to tournament tennis in Shanghai tomorrow.
Grand Slam king Djokovic, who faces Marin Cilic in his Rolex Shanghai Masters Opener, met the media today and shared his state of mind ahead of his comeback.
The 38-year-old Serbian superstar said seeing his quest for a 25th Grand Slam crown fall short against Carlos Alcaraz in the US Open semifinals and Jannik Sinner in the Roland Garros and Wimbledon semifinals is not ideal, but he’s not discouraged either.
Djokovic, who could face Sinner again in the Shanghai semifinals, reiterated his belief that his best shot to defeat the New Two is in the best-of-three-set Masters 1000 tournaments.
“I’m still working my hardest that I possibly can in the circumstances to challenge the guys or to challenge myself primarily and really see how I can do on all the tournaments that I take part in,” Djokovic said. “Of course, best-of-three, duration of the tournament, ideally seven days, that’s where I feel I have a better chance to win a trophy or to make a significant result.
“Other than those matches that I lost to these best two players in the world, I think I played really good tennis in Grand Slams and reached semifinals in each one of them.
“So it speaks about the level and the consistency and so I’m pleased with that. But at the same time there’s a part of me that always is a winner, that, you know, wants to be the best. I’ve been fortunate to experience the greatest thing.”
The owner of 100 career titles is 19-3 in his last 22 Tour-level matches with all three losses coming to the world’s top two.
Djokovic said he’s still inspired to continue competing and try to turn the tables on Alcaraz and Sinner, who have combined to collect eight straight Grand Slam championships.
“It is not ideal when you really are playing big matches and you’re losing against currently the best players in the world. But nevertheless, that’s not discouraging me to keep going,” Djokovic said. “I don’t play tennis only for the sake of making results and winning trophies, there’s several other reasons why I keep going.”
