REUTERS – World Number 6 Novak Djokovic on Wednesday (August 22) said in New York he was confident ahead of the U.S. Open tennis tournament next week, after collecting a fourth Wimbledon title and completing a sweep of Masters series events over the last month.

He defeated Roger Federer on Sunday (August 19) in the Cincinnati Masters final, becoming the first player to complete a sweep of Masters series tournaments.

That kind of success would be thrilling under any circumstances but Djokovic said the hard road back made it even more satisfying.

An elbow injury forced Djokovic to retire against Czech Tomas Berdych in the quarter-finals of Wimbledon in 2017. After that came a series of early tournament exits and, finally, surgery.

But he said his sights were on success at Flushing Meadows.

“This is a place where I have always played well, where I’ve had plenty of success. I’ve played seven finals, I think, and won the title twice. I haven’t played here last year – that was the first grand slam I missed ever since I started playing professional tennis. So I was really sad that couldn’t play last year. But here I am, you know, one year forward and feeling very good about myself on the court and really looking forward to hit the courts,” the 13-time Grand Slam winner told Reuters.

Djokovic said given the chance he wouldn’t have changed anything about his history on the courts.

“The Wimbledon win and the Cincinnati win now are much sweeter, more special,” Djokovic said, “because of the journey.”