Google News Sampras: "I'm more like Djokovic than Federer and Rafael Nadal"
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For most of his career, Novak Djokovic's style of play has been juxtaposed to that of Andre Agassi. Although the collaboration between the two has not had the desired effects, the Serbian phenomenon has always shown enormous gratitude to the American.
The number 1 in the world will participate in the Masters 1000 in Cincinnati and the US Open, where he hopes to grab the 18th Grand Slam of his career and remain unbeaten in this wretched 2020. According to Steve Flink, author of the biography of Pete Sampras entitled Greatness Revisited, said Sampras would have had a very significant impact on Nole's career.
The two met last year during the Indian Wells Masters 1000, and Djokovic was unable to hide his emotion in front of one of his childhood idols.
Sampras: "Djokovic is the one who looks like me the most"
"It is very evident that their playing style is different.
What Nole liked was Sampras’s approach. When he was six and living in Serbia, he didn't miss a Sampras match, especially at Wimbledon. He was a huge Pete fan. He feels he has learned a lot from Sampras' attitude, which helped him against Roger Federer last year for example, when he canceled two match points in the Wimbledon final.
He's always sensed similarities between him and Pete," explained Flink. Before this interview, Sampras himself had recognized some similarities between him and Novak: "When I look at modern players, especially Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer, Andy Murray and Novak Djokovic.
I have to say that Nole is the one who resembles me the most. He is just like me, a happy person. We both had to work hard, we came from a country with no great tradition (Sampras is of Greek origin), and this led us to work harder than the others to get to the top." The Belgrade champion has a clear goal: to break all records of his rivals.
He will start at the Western and Soutern Open, this season on the Flushing Meadows bubble, to play and try to win his 4th US Open title. Meanwhile Rafael Nadal decided to skip the Masters 1000 of Cincinnati (this year in New York) and the US Open, in ordero to fucus his efforts on the French Open and maybe Rome, before Paris.
