“I felt good – but let’s not get our hopes up!” Cautious Djokovic happy with strong start in Monte-Carlo

Whisper it, but Novak Djokovic is feeling good on court

Chryslene Caillaud/Panoramic

Carrie Dunn

April 9, 2024

Rolex Monte-Carlo Masters •Third round • completed

See draw

N. DjokovicvsR. Safiullin

Novak Djokovic might not have had quite the start to 2024 that he would have wished for, with some physical wear and tear followed by personnel changes after Goran Ivanisevic’s departure from the team.

But his start in Monte-Carlo was almost as perfect as it could have got. In only his third singles match on tour since the Australian Open, a 6-1, 6-2 win over Roman Safiullin had him heading to his press conference in a positive frame of mind – even if he did urge caution from anyone who’s already setting their expectations high for him.

“My feeling [on court] was great,” he told reporters. “I think it’s an accurate judgment from the people that it’s been one of the best performances I had here in quite a few years. Monte-Carlo is the first big tournament of the clay court season. You know, I haven’t been really able the last six, seven years to start off strong and start off well. I’ve always kind of struggled in this tournament.

“But again, it’s just the beginning of the tournament. It’s one match. I’m going to hope to work tomorrow to maintain that rhythm and focus, obviously try to perform as well as I did in the second match as well as I did today.”

Djokovic: The training is paying off

He added: “I like really the way I felt today on the court, the way I was striking the ball. I think the two, three weeks of training I had is paying off really, you know, good training block with [Nenad] Zimonjic and with the team. We put in a lot of hours into thinking about the game, the movement, and things that haven’t really worked for me in the first couple tournaments of this year that I played.

“It’s a great start. Let’s not get ahead of ourselves and put the hopes too high. It’s only one match, but the way I felt, I’m really pleased.”