After winning the Olympic men’s singles gold medal, Djokovic completed the Golden Slam and became the oldest tennis player to win an Olympic gold medal. He joined Steffi Graff, Rafael Nadal, Andre Agassi and Serena Williams in achieving this milestone.
The Serbian has been absent from this week’s Canadian Open. Djokovic’s pre-US Open warm-up tournament is now likely to be the Cincinnati Open, where he has a title to defend and is on the roster.
Recently, the men’s Olympic champion also announced that he will return to Asia to play in the 2024 Shanghai Masters for the first time since 2019.
“Hello. This is Novak. I can’t wait to be back in Shanghai this year to play the Rolex Masters in Shanghai. It’s been five years since I last played in China. I miss my fans, I miss playing in China,” Djokovic said in his announcement clip.
Djokovic has won the Shanghai Masters four times in its history. The Serb last lifted the title in 2018 and his last appearance in 2019 saw him lose to Stefanos Tsitsipas in the quarterfinals.
The tournament was then postponed for three years (2020-2022) due to the COVID-19 pandemic in China. In 2023, Djokovic withdrew just before the tournament due to needing more time to recover.
Additionally, following Djokovic’s Olympic gold medal, the president of Serbia announced plans to build a museum dedicated to their country’s great tennis player.
“We have had the first discussions about the construction of the Novak Djokovic museum, which is expected to become another attraction of the city,” said Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic.
According to Vucic, Palma de Mallorca has a museum dedicated to Rafael Nadal. Djokovic will also get that after what he has done for our country and at the same time attract tourists to the capital Belgrade – the place where the Serbian tennis player was born. In addition, the museum is expected to be completed before Belgrade hosts the World Expo in 2027.
Djokovic has long enjoyed the status of a living legend in Serbia, where the 24-time Grand Slam winner ran a tennis academy for years in the capital Belgrade, regularly attending sporting events and meeting with state officials.
