For him, the first three rounds of a Grand Slam are a warm-up," Lajovic confident about Djokovic's level at the US Open

For the second year in a row, Novak Djokovic skipped the North American Masters 1000 tournaments to focus solely on the US Open.

At 38 years old and after a season where he reached the semifinals of every Major, the Serb wants to give himself every possible chance to try and defeat Carlos Alcaraz or Jannik Sinner, the favorites for the title in New York.

His compatriot Dusan Lajovic, with whom he teamed up in the Davis Cup, was interviewed by Sportklub about this decision to skip the warm-up tournaments:

"For 97% of other players, I would say yes (it would have a negative impact), but not for Novak. He’s done it before in his career. For a long time before Australia, he didn’t play any tournaments, taking a break of a month and a half, or even more.

For him, the first three rounds of a Grand Slam are a warm-up, if you look at the statistics and history. It’s like a preparation tournament that other players play in Cincinnati or Toronto, or elsewhere.