The question put to Novak Djokovic after he won the French Open for his 19th Grand Slam title, moving within one of rivals Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal for the men's record, was whether he ever was resigned to not being able to catch them.
The context: Entering the 2011 season, Federer owned 16 major championships, Nadal nine and Djokovic one.
And while Djokovic began by offering a direct answer Sunday night following his
https://apnews.com/article/europe-tennis-french-open-djokovic-comeback-tsitsipas-740f48e06b09d811787785a6be19e033 over Stefanos Tsitsipas, saying he didn't consider it "a mission impossible" to bring his trophy collection in line with the other members of the Big Three, what followed was instructive.
"I'll keep on going. I'll keep on chasing," Djokovic said about the Slam standings that everyone has been tracking for a while now as each surpassed the benchmark of 14 established by Pete Sampras.
In the very next breath, Djokovic added: "At the same time, I'll keep on paving my own path, which is my own authentic path. We — all three of us — have our own journeys, and that's it."