World number two Novak Djokovic of Serbia said that mental toughness and self belief are keys to achieving great results in professional tennis. Djokovic reached the final of the Shanghai Masters on Saturday and will face Juan Martin Del Potro of Argentina in the final. Djokovic is the defending champion in Shanghai.
“To win a Grand Slam is the pinnacle of this sport, as well as being No. 1 of the world. Not many players are able to do that,” he said. Djokovic has held the number one ranking for a total of 101 weeks. He relinquished the top ranking to rival Rafael Nadal last weekend at the China Open.
“If you kind of keep on trying for many years, you start doubting yourself if you really can do it. All the people around you keep on telling you that you can. In my case, in my personal experience, when I won in 2008 my first Grand Slam (at the Australian Open), two years after that I wasn’t managing to win [another major] title.
People started doubting my abilities [to win] another Grand Slam title. I did have also my own dilemmas.
“In the end I figured out it’s a matter of obviously a lot of things together, but mostly self-belief. Because it’s a mental game and you need to be mentally tough and be ready to commit and sacrifice many things in life to achieve that.”
