Shanghai [China], October 3 (ANI): As he prepares to start his Shanghai Masters campaign, the 24-time major champion Novak Djokovic felt unaffected by his recent losses to the top two players in the world, Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner, saying that while it is not ideal to lose big matches to the top talent regularly, he is not discouraged by his results, but rather wants to keep going.

Djokovic, who opens his Shanghai Masters campaign against Marin Cilic, is seeded to meet world number two Sinner in the semifinal. The world number two Italian enjoys dominance over the tennis legend by a 6-4 margin, having won their past five meetings. While Djokovic has a better record against Alcaraz, with five wins and four losses, he fumbled two Grand Slam titles, losing to him in the Wimbledon finals in 2023 and 2024. He has faced a two-year Grand Slam drought at this point.

The Spanish superstar Alcaraz, now the world number one and recently-crowned US Open champion, has traded past eight Grand Slam titles equally since Djokovic's US Open win back in 2023. However, the Serbian icon has still had his moments, beating Alcaraz to win the Paris Olympics gold and Sinner in the title decider during the 2023 ATP Finals.

This season, the 38-year-old has struggled to find a way to dominate these two young stars in their early 20s, losing to Sinner in the semi-finals at Roland Garros and Wimbledon and to Alcaraz in the last four at the US Open

Speaking ahead of the match against Cilic, he spoke on his rivalry with these two next-generation stars, saying, as quoted by ATP's official website, 'I am still working my hardest that I possibly can in the circumstances to challenge the guys or to challenge myself primarily and really see how I can do on all the tournaments that I take part in. Of course, best-of-three, duration of the tournament, ideally seven days, that is where I feel I have a better chance to win a trophy or to make a significant result.'

'Other than those matches that I lost to these best two players in the world, I think I played really good tennis in Grand Slams and reached semi-finals in each one of them. So it speaks about the level and the consistency, and so I am pleased with that. But at the same time there is a part of me that always is a winner, that, you know, wants to be the best. I have been fortunate to experience the greatest thing.'

'It is not ideal when you really are playing big matches and you're losing against currently the best players in the world. But nevertheless, that is not discouraging me to keep going. I do not play tennis only for the sake of making results and winning trophies, there is several other reasons why I keep going,' he concluded.

Djokovic's last Grand Slam was the 2023 US Open, and his 100th tour-level title came in May 2025 at the Geneva Open, where he beat Hubert Hurkacz in the final. (ANI)