Dubai: World number one Novak Djokovic feels he is honoured to be part of modern tennis’ quartet of star performers.
After falling in straight sets in the singles final of the Dubai Duty Free Men’s Open final to Swiss ace Roger Federer on Saturday, the Serbian was left in awe of an astonishing performance from one of his arch-opponents – the other two being Rafael Nadal and Andy Murray.
Playing only for the second time in a final here, Saturday’s match rose to expected standards and there could be just one winner: the one committing the least number of mistakes. The last time the two met in the final here was in 2011 with Djokovic taking his fourth title in straight sets.
However on Saturday, there was no way the Serb could stop Federer with the Swiss showing his intent right from the start as he served and moved in swiftly to the net to finish it off with a sharp volley. “I have the biggest rivalries against these three guys and they are all different. After Rafa, I’ve played the most against Roger in some big matches. We always make each other play our best tennis. We require from each other the maximum focus and commitment and that’s what raises the quality of the match,” Djokovic complimented.
“That’s why he’s who he is. I managed to achieve a lot in my career, I was saying before that it is because of the matches against Roger and Rafa that I’ve managed to learn and understand mentally, physically, game-wise what I need to do to improve to get myself to a high level and to win Grand Slams and be the best in the world. So that’s also because of them,” he added.
Chasing his fifth title in Dubai, Djokovic had no answer to what Federer sent down his way as the Swiss Master proved his class as arguably the best player ever. “He has been like this in the important moments and big matches during his entire career. He hasn’t been dropping his level too much. But again today was exceptional. I thought at least I’m going to get one good look at the rally or something like that, but he did a very good job,” Djokovic said.
“While I did my best, I thought I tried to hang in there. Mentally I didn’t want to let it go, and it was unfortunate in the end,” he added.
