‘My love never fades’ - Novak Djokovic sets out retirement plan as he closes in on epic career milestone

Novak Djokovic admitted he will not walk away from tennis entirely after he quits playing.

The 37-year-old knows it may not be long before he is forced to hang up his racket permanently.

2 Djokovic seemed to accept he might not have long left Credit: AFP

Injuries are mounting up and have disrupted his 2024 season - failing to win a Grand Slam in a calendar year since 2017.

He did, however, add a Gold Medal to his collection - the final piece missing from his illustrious career.

The 24-time Grand Slam winner already holds many, many records in the sport and there is very little for himself to achieve.

Djokovic is back at the Shanghai Masters for the first time in five years and says the fire still burns, even if he cannot continue the same schedule he did in his younger days.

"My love for tennis will never fade away. I have a lot of emotions when I'm playing, and not particularly only in the tournament, but also practice sessions," he insists.

"Sometimes it's not always going your way, but I think my relationship with tennis goes much deeper than a tournament or a year or success or failure, it's just, you know, a sport that I fell in love with when I was very young, and I still have the love for the sport."

He added: "Even when I retire from professional tennis, I feel like I'm going to stay in tennis, stay involved in, you know, in different roles, because I feel like I owe this sport a lot for what it has been giving to me."

In recent years, he has focused on Grand Slams in order to smash past his career rivals Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal. Leading Federer by four Slams and Nadal by two.

If he wins in Shanghai, it will be his 100th career title. Jimmy Connors holds the record on 109, while Federer is second on 103.

He also spoke about culling down his schedule as he tries to adapt to his later career.

2 Djokovic won the first gold medal of his career at the Olympics Credit: Getty

"Usually in my career I used to have my schedule ready six months in advance, but nowadays that’s not the case," he explained. "Now it’s more spontaneous.

"Firstly, I need to physically, emotionally and mentally rest in order to even start thinking what I want to do next, in what way, how much and where."

Addressing the ATP Finals, he added: "Torino is not my goal at all, to be honest. I am not chasing ATP Finals, I am not chasing the rankings.

"As far as I’m concerned, I am done with those tournaments for my career. Whether I will play others this year or in the future, I can’t say right now.

"My main priorities are playing for the national team and Slams. Everything else is less important. I said a million times how much it means to play for the national team."

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