Wimbledon 2014: Novak Djokovic determined to end Grand Slam final rot

 
GETTY
Giuseppe Muro4 July 2014

Novak Djokovic is determined to end his poor run in Grand Slam finals by beating Roger Federer to win the Wimbledon title on Sunday.

Djokovic, who beat Grigor Dimitrov 6-4, 3-6, 7-6, 7-6 in his semi-final today, has lost three of his last four Grand Slam finals, including last year’s Wimbledon final yo Andy Murray.

“Losing three out of four last is not satisfying and of course that is frustrating,” said the Serb. “I know I can win the title. I should have won a few matches that I lost in finals of Slams in last couple years. But it is an experience, a learning process. It is about understanding and identifying where the problem is and working on it.

“I have tried to learn from those defeats. I have a team of people around me who are experts in their own fields. They all try to help me out and analyse my game, as well as my mental approach.

“So we will try to understand what I did wrong at the French Open final and make it better. It is a mental thing. You have to be on top of your game, mentally fresh, motivated, calm and composed.”

Infrared Wimbledon

1/13

Djokovic is bidding to win his second Wimbledon and seventh Grand Slam title. The 27-year-old will regain the No1 one ranking if he wins on Sunday.

“The key against Roger is not allowing him to dictate too much,” said Djokovic. “Because he likes to be very aggressive, he likes to come to the net. I have to get many returns back in the court and try to protect the baseline.

“Every rivalry I have with these three guys is special and unique in its own way. Of course I respect Roger and everything he has achieved in his career. For him to be back in the Wimbledon final again, it is incredible what he is doing. But when we come on to court, that ends. I am there to win against whoever is across the net.”

Dimitrov, who knocked out Andy Murray on his way to the semi-finals, says he will learn from his run to the last four at The All England Club. He said: “It is a good learning curve for me to put myself in such a position and play against these kind of players and attack the top in a different way.

“I am going to have to play even better when it comes to matches like that, but it is a good lesson for me. I can take a lot of positives out of all the matches I played here.”

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in