Djokovic makes China return embraces new fashion

pa href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/novak-djokovic/d643/overview'Novak Djokovic/a is back on Chinese soil./p
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It is a treat not only for the local adoring fans, but also for the four-time a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/tournaments/shanghai/5014/overview'Rolex Shanghai Masters/a champion Djokovic./p
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ldquo;I wanted to play in Chinahellip; I said, lsquo;Okay, I need to play the tournament in Shanghai, itrsquo;s the biggest event in China and one of the great 1000 events we have on Tourrsquo;. I missed being in China,rdquo; Djokovic told ATP Media. /p
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ldquo;Itrsquo;s been a while, five years. A lot has happened in the meantime in those five years for me and my career, so I was looking forward to coming and experiencing the love and energy and support that Irsquo;ve been getting from Chinese fans all these years.rdquo;/p
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Making his 10th Shanghai appearance, the 37-year-old has long felt warm support from Chinese fans stretched across the globe. Now Djokovic is competing in their backyard for the first time since 2019./p
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ldquo;I met some of them on the Tour the last couple of years and they were asking me in a way, lsquo;You need to come back to China and play!rsquo; So Irsquo;m happy that Irsquo;m here, I really am,rdquo; Djokovic said. ldquo;Itrsquo;s one of the most spectacular events. The stadium is just incredible, one of the nicest ones we have on the Tour in our sport.rdquo;/p
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Djokovic owns the most wins (34) and titles (2012-13, 2015, 2018) in Shanghai tournament history. As is the case almost any time Djokovic steps on court, the World No. 4 in the PIF ATP Rankings is chasing a milestone this week. /p
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The fourth seed will attempt to become the third man in the Open Era to capture 100 tour-level titles and break his tie with a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/roger-federer/f324/overview'Roger Federer/a for most titles on hard courts (71). /p
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Boasting a 34-5 tournament record, Djokovic will open his title quest against home favourite a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.atptour.com/en/players/yunchaokete-bu/y09v/overview" target="_blank"Buyunchaokete/a or #NextGenATP a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/alex-michelsen/m0qi/overview'Alex Michelsen/a./p
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ldquo;Irsquo;ve had plenty of success here and in Beijing, won a lot of titles,rdquo; said Djokovic. ldquo;Hopefully that previous experience and the memories that I have can help me do well this year as well.rdquo;/p
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Before arriving in Shanghai, a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.atptour.com//en/news/djokovic-great-wall-2024-lacoste" target="_blank"Djokovic spent time in Beijing and at the Great Wall of China/a. Lacoste hosted a special event at the Ju Yong Guan pass, where a tennis court was set up and Djokovic enjoyed hitting some balls with Chinese actor Wang Yibo./p
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Djokovic also visited the Summer Palace and sported a bright green tracksuit while strolling the streets of Chinarsquo;s capital city./pblockquote class="twitter-tweet"p lang="en" dir="ltr"Chinese dreams in a href="https://twitter.com/Lacoste?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw"@Lacoste/a greens. a href="https://t.co/etwWY2bdKK"pic.twitter.com/etwWY2bdKK/a/pmdash; a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/novak-djokovic/d643/overview'Novak Djokovic/a (@DjokerNole) a href="https://twitter.com/DjokerNole/status/1840737855993233832?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw"September 30, 2024/a/blockquote script async="" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"/script
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ldquo;It brought back the 90s. Irsquo;m a kid of the 90s and I remember those days,rdquo; Djokovic said with a laugh. ldquo;The music and how everybody, like the music artists were dressing up. The tracksuit was a big deal. The colour was really out there. I was walking on the street and people were like, lsquo;Woah! Whatrsquo;s going on? This is a little bit too much for our eyes!rsquo; We had fun.rdquo;/p
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It may have brought flashbacks to the past, but perhaps it was also a glimpse of what fans will see more of from Djokovic moving forward. The Beglrade native has been receiving fashion advice from his wife and some friends, who work in fashion./p
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ldquo;Irsquo;m enjoying the new style to be honest. Irsquo;m starting to expand on what I can wear and what I wasnrsquo;t wearing for a long time mdash; Irsquo;m starting to like it a little bit more. I pay more attention to it,rdquo; Djokovic said. ldquo;I wasnrsquo;t really caring as much for fashion in the past off the court. I was more kind of conversative, jeans or chinos and a polo, that was kind of my vibe for a long time, but now Irsquo;m stepping out of the box a little bit and exploring the fashion world.rdquo;/p
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Djokovic will aim to step in the winnerrsquo;s circle for the second time this year. The Serbian has tallied a 32-8 season record with his best result coming at the a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/scores/archive/paris/96/2024/results'Paris Olympics/a, where he captured the gold medal./p
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