Djokovic : “Maybe I Was Chinese in the Past Life”

Novak Djokovic was crowned the prince of Shanghai for the fourth time in his career, as he dispatched Borna Coric in straight sets. Djokovic is now on a 18 match winning streak, having won both the Wimbledon and US Open titles. “It’s phenomenal. I’m very proud of it,” said Djokovic. “Obviously the last three, four months have been terrific for me. Not many holes in the game in general, especially this week. Everything worked perfectly.” 

Djokovic said he felt that the Chinese fans were really behind him and he always liked to come back to Shanghai for this reason. He was asked why the people here got behind him so much, during his press conference. “Maybe from the past life. Maybe I was Chinese in the past life (smiling)”, says Djokovic. “I wouldn’t be surprised, to be honest, with the way I feel here and the way I communicate and have relationship with the people. It’s all very, very positive, for more than ten years that I have been coming to China. There is something special about this place that makes me feel like at home.”

The Serb did not drop a single service game in the entire tournament-such was his dominance. He won 47 straight service games. “Well, to be honest, I’m not sure whether it has happened ever, you know, that I go through a tournament without dropping one service game”, said the US Open champion. “I’m sure that it hasn’t happened too many times if it did. So this was definitely one of the best service weeks that I had in my career. I think I faced only two break points today and against Kevin in quarters, and that’s all.”

Djokovic also closes in the gap between him and Rafael Nadal at the top of the rankings. The Serbian is almost certain to overthrow Nadal from his perch. “Yeah, I mean, we are very close. I think it’s around 50 points’ difference. So obviously I don’t feel as much, I would say, pressure to play before Paris as much as I would if the situation was different points-wise, but I still will consider playing the week before Paris, and I’ll decide with the team probably in couple days.”