Djokovic off on holidays

Dethroned king Novak Djokovic won’t bother watching the men’s Wimbledon final on Sunday when ageless master Roger Federer strives to take the Serb’s No.1 ranking as well.

Federer’s vintage 6-3 3-6 6-4 6-3 semi-final victory over the titleholder in the superstar pair’s first-ever grasscourt encounter has the 30-year-old Swiss poised to end Djokovic’s one-year reign at the tennis summit.

“If he wins and becomes No.1, it’s going to be well-deserved,” Djokovic said after suffering just his second defeat in his past 33 grand slam matches.

“He’s played fantastic this year. He’s been so consistent. If he wins, he wins. There’s nothing I can do about it. The best player will win this tournament. I’m out.

“Now I will cheer for my holidays in next 10 days.”

Eager to put his feet up after an exhausting 18 months that have yielded four majors among a dozen titles in total, Djokovic says he has no plans to tune into Federer’s historic clash with great home hope Andy Murray.

“No, no. I’m really going for holidays now,” he said.

“It’s been a long five, six months for me. Didn’t have much rest.

“Now I’m going to take some time off and really try to keep my mind off tennis.

“Then of course coming back to the Olympics, which I’m looking forward to. The Olympic Games are pinnacle of all sports.”

Apart from claiming he’d had a “bad last couple days, last five, six” when he “wasn’t feeling great”, Djokovic offered no excuses for his painful defeat.

“No question about it, he was the better player,” Djokovic said.

“In the important moments, he was aggressive, hitting from both sides.

“Obviously that’s what you expect when you play against Roger at the final four of a grand slam. I knew that. I expected him to be at the top level, but I expected myself as well.

“I wasn’t. I had ups and downs throughout the match.”

Their 27th career meeting was played under a closed roof, with Federer widely deemed to be the finest indoor exponent on the planet.

Djokovic refused to blame that either.

“We both know what it’s like to play under the roof, under these conditions,” he said.

“I lost to a great champion, somebody that has the most grand slams in the history of the sport.

“I do regret that I didn’t play as well as I thought I would and as well as I played maybe last couple matches.

“You know, life goes on. This is sport. I have to move on.”

Still the reigning Australian Open and US Open champion, Djokovic knows the critics will try to compare his phenomenal 2011 – which featured a 41-match winning streak to open the season – with his so-far less fruitful 2012 and “say this year is not that great”.

“But,look, I won a grand slam, played finals, semi-finals, won a couple of big tournaments and played a lot of finals,” he said.

“So I’m very satisfied with the way it goes. It’s really difficult to do, to repeat what I have done last year and I didn’t expect myself to do that.”

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