Novak Djokovic Confirms His Participation in Tokyo and Shanghai

World No.1 Novak Djokovic confirms his participation at the Japan Open 2019 after a lot of speculations on his shoulder injury. According to reports, Djokovic is back in training and he will play at the ATP 500 event in Tokyo, which is scheduled to start from Monday.

In an interview with Sport Klub, the 16-time Grand Slam champion revealed the reason to play the Tokyo Open 2019 despite having much success in Beijing in the past. The Serbian explained that wants to experience the conditions in Tokyo in order to prepare for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

“I have had a lot of success in Beijing in the past, there was no reason to change it, but this time I did it because of the Olympics – I want to feel what the terrain is, what the conditions are, the city. In short, to prepare for the likely one of the most important sporting events in this part of my career,” Djokovic said.

According to reports, Djokovic will also participate at the Shanghai Masters 1000, where he is the defending champion. Serbia’s media quoted Djokovic as saying he had been “training without pain for the past two days”.

Djokovic’s return means that he could play the remaining tournaments of the season and try to hold his No.1 ranking in the ATP rankings, giving a challenge to the US Open champion Rafael Nadal who is just 640 ATP points behind him with no points to defend in the remaining part of the season.

“It makes me very optimistic that I could play until the end of the season as I planned,” Djokovic was quoted as saying.

Earlier this month, Novak Djokovic was forced to retire from the fourth round of the US Open 2019 against Stan Wawrinka. The 32-year-old was trailing two sets and a break in the third set when he was unable to continue due to a nagging injury in his left shoulder. Since then, the world No.1 has not returned to the court until now.