World No.1 Novak Djokovic is a proud Serbian, but Monte-Carlo is a substantial home tournament for him. Djokovic has confirmed his participation at the 2020 Monte-Carlo Masters, which begins from April 12 and will conclude on April 19.
Djokovic has been living in Monte Carlo for more than nine years. He has also opened a restaurant in the city. Furthermore, he enjoys the comforts of home while he competes in the first Masters 1000 tournament of the season on clay.
The ATP Masters 1000 event in Monaco is one of the biggest clay-court tournaments of the ATP Tour. The 17-time Grand Slam champion will take part in this tournament in order to prepare for Roland Garros.
Novak Djokovic participation confirmed
The Monte-Carlo Open is an ATP Masters 1000 tournament, where the participation is not mandatory. More often than not, the top tennis players decide to rest instead of playing the event.
Novak Djokovic joins 11-time champion Rafael Nadal, Kei Nishikori, Daniil Medvedev and defending champion Fabio Fognini, who have already confirmed their participation for the event.
Djokovic at Monte-Carlo Masters
Djokovic is pretty much familiar with the Monte-Carlo Masters, making his 13th appearance in the event this year. Furthermore, this tournament holds a soft spot for Djokovic after winning here twice in 2013 and 2015.
He also finished as runner-up twice in 2009 and 2012. However, he defeated Rafael Nadal in the finals in 2013 and broke the Spaniard’s streak of 8 titles to clinch his first title.
Playing as the top seed, Djokovic saw a defeat against next-gen star Daniil Medvedev in the quarterfinals, last year. He would hope to better his result in the 2020 edition and gain some confidence in his way up to the French Open 2020.
Novak Djokovic eyes extended stay at the top of the ATP Rankings
Everything aligned for Novak Djokovic in the first month of the 2020 campaign as he returned to No 1 in the world and now he wants stay there for as long as possible.
The Serb started the season as world No 2 behind Rafael Nadal, but he led his country to glory at the inaugural ATP Cup as he won his six singles matches.
He then successfully defended his Australian Open crown and, with Nadal losing in the last eight at Melbourne Park, returned to the top of the world rankings.
“At the beginning of the season I wanted to get back to the top spot as soon as possible,” the 17-time Grand Slam winner told SportKlub.
“The circumstances turned out to be such that Nadal fell out in the quarter-finals and everything lined-up, now everything is in my hands.”
Now that the first ranking goal has been ticked off the list, he wants to make sure he stays there in the lead-up to the French Open.
The next two big events are the hard-court Indian Wells Masters and Miami Open where he lost in the round of 32 and round of 16, respectively last year.
As for the clay season, in 2019 he reached the quarter-finals of the Monte-Carlo Masters, won the Madrid Open and finished runner-up in the Italian Open.
He added: “Neither Nadal nor I have too many points to defend ahead of Roland Garros.
“I hope for a successful season on the hard-courts, especially in Indian Wells and Miami, where I have had a lot of success in my career
“But I have not recorded very good results in the last few years, so I have a chance to pick up some more points.”
