I always dreamt to be best: Novak Djokovic

So, Novak Djokovic, how is the view from the top of the tennis world? We are here on the observation deck of the Empire State Building, 86 storeys above the yellow cabs honking at the corner of Fifth Avenue and 34th Street. It seems a suitably elevated position for the Serb to be drinking in his status as US Open champion, studying an almost limitless horizon on this pristine Manhattan morning.

He looks exhausted. “I definitely had some gluten last night,” he says, in a wry comment on the ascetic diet that helped him prevail in Monday’s quite compellingly brutal final against Rafael Nadal. Four hours of the most fearsome baseline exchanges this sport has witnessed were followed by four hours of celebrating - and fewer than four hours of sleep. “I’m not feeling the freshest guy right now,” Djokovic admits. “But it’s all for a good cause. It has been an incredible tournament, especially the final. I always find the energy out there and when you win it, you’re the happiest person.”

Ably assisted by girlfriend Jelena Ristic, Djokovic adapted seamlessly to the change to a champagne-based regime. “Our friends organised a little party up in the hotel, in the Soho district. We just gathered around people that we knew, turned on the music and had a nice evening.” Having eventually turned in at 2.30am, he rose again at 6.45, ready for a gruelling round of television interviews on the American morning shows. “Yeah, it has been a long morning,” he groans, under heavy eyelids.

There is breathless talk that next year, Djokovic can become the first man since Rod Laver in 1969 to win all four slams in a calendar year. He makes no effort to suppress such hysteria. “There is a lot to prove, a lot more tournaments to win so long as I have the desire, and the feeling that I can win every single match that I play,” he explains. “I will always have high ambitions to win every major that I play.”

Ominously, as head of the Djokovic-Nadal-Federer triumvirate we are so privileged to be watching, he is certain that he can take tennis to an even higher plane. “It’s being elevated all the time. The game has improved tremendously — and it has changed in comparison to 10 years ago. Now you see mostly baseliners, and great returners.”

The joy of listening to Djokovic lies in his conviction that he is fulfilling his destiny. From the days spent swishing a racket at his parents’ ski resort in the Carpathian Mountains, the certainty has never wavered. “I was dreaming all my life to be the best. I had that goal in my head. Many times in my career I have faced criticism for an aggressive attitude, for being unrealistic. I was looked at in a different way. But I never stopped believing that I could be the best, because I knew that I had the quality. When a kid has a dream, there is not much that can stop him.”