Novak Djokovic has admitted to being unsure what 2025 holds for him, but he does plan to return to China next year to compete in at least one tournament.
Djokovic coasted into the last 16 of the Shanghai Masters by defeating Flavio Cobolli, en route to a potential 100th career title, and candidly spoke about his future.
The 37-year-old's future has been up in the air after failing to win a Grand Slam in 2024, the first year since 2017 where he failed to win a major.
He has continued to play less tennis and instead prioritised the biggest events on the calendar, but opted to take part in the Asian swing once again, where he holds fond memories and vowed to return next year - shutting the door on the idea he may retire at the end of the season.
"Well, I always want to do very well in China, and I think my past results are a testament to how I feel in China," the Serbian star said. "I always had tremendous success, both Beijing and Shanghai. It is definitely due to incredible love and respect and support I'm getting from the Chinese people.
"So, my connection is very profound, and five years has been a very long period of not coming to China, so I will do my best to come back next year. I don't know what next year brings in terms of my schedule and so forth. I know that I still want to keep playing.
"I have to see where I am in my life with my body and everything, but I still have plans to go ahead, you know, as previous years, prioritizing the biggest events, but then I still would like to make my annual trip to China, at least for one tournament, because of the incredible energy and love I feel here."
Djokovic did not look like someone who was close to retirement against Cobolli, a self-confessed Djokovic superfan. He dismantled the Italian 6-1, 6-2 in little over an hour to set up a match with Roman Safiullin.
He is aiming to become only the third man after Jimmy Connors (109) and Roger Federer (103) to claim a century of tournament victories.
And the 24-time Grand Slam winner believes that taking more time off between events is playing a positive role in his upturn in form.
"I'm feeling good," he explained. "I think the advantage of not playing many tournaments is that you're fresh. So, I don't mind playing long matches every single day, whatever it takes.
"I've been recovering pretty well, and as you said, couple days of no match also helps the body. Yeah, maybe it's not ideal, you don't want to make too long of breaks when you're in the tournament already because of the game and kind of feeling that you have in your hands with the racquet.
"Yeah, I'm pleased with the way I kind of bounced back off that hard-fought first-round win, I mean, second-round win, first match. So, I look forward to tomorrow, I'm feeling good about my game and about myself."
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