Novak Djokovic will use a rare Brisbane return as his launch pad for a “fair dinkum” assault on a record 25th grand slam.
The 24-time tennis major winner has signed up to play the Brisbane International for the first time in 16 years in a scheduling shake-up for the superstar Serb.
Djokovic has traditionally entered January’s Australian Open, a tournament he’s won 10 times, without any fully-fledged lead-in matches.
But he’ll return to the Brisbane International for the first time since 2009 after a year that yielded a solitary title – at the Paris Olympics – and finished with him skipping the season-ending ATP Finals.
The 37-year-old, now ranked seventh in the world, is one trophy away from surpassing Margaret Court’s joint-record of 24 grand slam singles crowns.
Victory in Brisbane would also be Djokovic’s 100th ATP title – only Jimmy Connors (109) and Roger Federer (103) boast more.
“He had an interrupted second half of the year; didn’t play the world tour finals and he’s just looking at what’s his best pathway and he saw that as being Brisbane,” tournament director Cameron Pearson said.
“We had Roger, then Rafa (Nadal) now Novak again; we’ve been blessed here in Brisbane to have the three goats and you could argue Novak is the goat on his own.”
Djokovic joins a Brisbane field featuring Nick Kyrgios, defending champion Grigor Dimitrov, Holger Rune, Frances Tiafoe, Matteo Berrettini, Sebastian Korda, Gael Monfils, Alexei Popyrin and Jordan Thompson.
The ATP event at Pat Rafter Arena runs December 29 until January 5, with the Australian Open to begin on January 12.
“I expect it to be one of the best years we’ve ever had,” Australia’s former world No.1 Rafter said on Wednesday.
“This is not just preparation, this is a fair dinkum tournament and to be here preparing (for the Australian Open) is what you should be doing.
“A lot of guys will chase the money in the Middle East, or something like that.
“It’s about winning, preparing and playing as many matches as you can.”
Four of the world’s top-10 women – and 11 of the top 20 – will feature in Brisbane, headed by world No.1 Aryna Sabalenka.
