Novak Djokovic stands as one of the most outstanding figures in tennis history. With his commendable influence on players’ welfare and encouraging status in helping young players like Hamad Medjedovic do well, the Serbian has become a figure many players in their struggling period go to for learning.
After what must be his best season so far, with seven titles out of a possible nine including three out of four Grand Slam titles, the tennis idol has always shown how great a personality he can be off the court.
Jules Marie secures spot in 2024 AO qualifiers with Djokovic connection
Jules Marie has announced that he will play in the qualifiers at the 2024 Australian Open. The tennis player was Novak Djokovic’s sparring partner at the French Open in 2021. However, with not much to raise his personality in the sport, Marie is also a YouTuber with over 100k subscribers on his channel.
During his training sessions at the French Open with the World No.1, Marie shot the proceedings and uploaded it online. He has since received large viewership and the tennis player has revealed that his YT earnings have largely helped make his return to the court.
The 32-year-old player peaked his highest at World No. 228 in 2015 before retiring due to a frustrating streak of losses and after COVID-19 he started a YouTube channel and invested more of his time building it.
However, skepticism has always been the label of his career, but Marie aims for a comeback, competing and winning at ATP tournaments to improve his ranking. At 32, Marie is set to reach a new career-high rank of No. 226 which will enable him to secure a spot in the Australian Open qualifying draw next month.
Jules Marie announced the news via an Instagram post stating that he has been validated for the 2024 Australian Open qualifiers and added that he will be taking his fans behind the scenes of the tournament qualifiers.
“Pass validated for AO 24 Qualifiers. We did it, I’m taking you behind the scenes of the Australian Open 2024 qualifiers One of the four biggest tournaments in the world. So happy, a dream has come true…This is where, for the past two years, my hashtag has truly made sense: #nevertoolate,” he wrote.
Alex Corretja expresses surprise at possibility of Novak Djokovic winning Golden Slam
Alex Corretja has admitted that Novak Djokovic should not be focusing on completing a Golden Slam as he heads into the 2024 Australian Open. A Golden Slam would see Novak Djokovic win all four Grand Slams: the Australian Open, French Open, Wimbledon, US Open and the Olympics in a calendar year.
Corretja believes that Novak Djolovic will be faced with much stronger challenges in 2024. “I think that would be a little bit surprising [to win a Golden Slam] because even if he improves his game so much, he’s getting older,” said Corretja.
“It’s normal that he is getting older and the recovery is not the same. But at the same time, he’s got the experience and he’s just focused on the important tournaments and the ones that he feels are going to make a difference in his life.”
“I’m sure that he’s going to keep on winning Slams, but it’s going to be tougher and tougher and he knows that. And in a way, I feel the match that he lost against [Jannik] Sinner in the Davis Cup might be good for him. It’s a wake-up call to say, ‘okay, I’m doing unbelievably, but I can’t relax for one second because some of the guys behind me, are going to push me so much. They’re very dangerous and they know they can beat me now.’”
However, Corretja believes that Novak Djokovic remains the favourite to win an 11th Australian Open title. Nevertheless, he is expecting the likes of Jannik Sinner, Carlos Alcaraz, Daniil Medvedev to make it very difficult for him.
