Australian Open champion Novak Djokovic says he regrets tapping the chair umpire's foot in Sunday night's men's singles final win over Dominic Thiem.
After seeking treatment from the tournament doctor, Djokovic, who also lost his cool at the pro-Thiem crowd during the first set, fought back from 2-1 down to win the final two sets and claim his 17th major.The 32-year-old said Federer's record was a driving factor deep in the second half of his career.Australian Open champion Novak Djokovic poses with the trophy at the Botanical Gardens.
"Federer and Nadal are obviously still competing at a very high level and we have Dominic Thiem, [Alexander] Zverev, [Stefanos] Tsitsipas, [Daniil] Medvedev, as leaders of the new generation and guys that are challenging the three of us for grand slam titles. "Eventually they will start winning the major titles and hopefully not too soon, we'll make sure it doesn't happen too soon, but I'm obviously thrilled to still be in a position to still be in the mix in terms of conversation for the most grand slam titles.Djokovic said his team led the celebrations on Sunday night before his eighth Australian Open title really began to sink in.
"I left them for a couple of hours while I was doing media. I came back and saw a lot of mess in the locker room made by my team but they did seem like they had fun and enjoyed it," he said."They didn't drink much, I'm glad, but it was too late to really go anywhere or do anything so we just crashed back in the room and today is obviously a different feeling to last night."Today, I just feel relieved that it's over.
Djokovic returned to No.1 in the men's singles rankings, with Thiem jumping Medvedev in fourth, while Aussie Nick Kyrgios shot up six spots to 20th.
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