Djokovic in high hopes over upcoming clay tournaments

BELGRADE, May 2 (Xinhua) -- Novak Djokovic, former number one tennis player, revealed on Wednesday here in Belgrade that he has high hopes from the continuation of the clay season, and that now he is fully recovered from elbow surgery and trains hard to return to the top.

Djokovic, currently 12th in the ATP rankings with 2,200 points, held an open training attended by press at his tennis academy in Belgrade and afterwards talked to journalists interested in his motivation and plans for the rest of the season, as well as his further career.

"Since the tournament in Miami I can play without feeling any pain, so this is a great news, because before that I had a hard time to play under pain. Now, everything comes down to the improvement of my shape. Marjan Vajda and Phil Grich are back in the team, and I am very happy to have them, because they know me and my style of play very well, and I believe that everything will fall into the right place. I hope to achieve better results in the upcoming weeks," Djokovic said.

He explained that he was at first against surgery as the solution to his elbow injury, and that the team persuaded him that this was the best long-term solution. After that he made a mistake of returning to the tennis court too early.

"This was a mistake, because I was not physically prepared, so this costed me. After that, things started to improve for the better, especially when it comes to the tournaments played on clay court. I agree that the results in Barcelona and Monte Carlo are not the ones I am hoping to achieve, nor the ones that my fans hope for and expect. But, this is a process, and I am getting used to it," Djokovic admitted.

He continued that his team currently has plans for the three upcoming tournaments ending with the Roland Garros, and that he "believes in himself", although he admitted that he needs to get his confidence back with "several good games or one good tournament".

He did not wish to comment on speculations that the changes in his diet are the true reason of his under-performance. Djokovic said that the press inverted a lot of his statements in the past, so he would rather keep this for himself, and do what he "finds right for him as a person and a tennis player". Enditem