World number one Novak Djokovic, after making an early exit from the Rogers Cup, is looking to put his US Open preparations back on track in the Cincinnati Masters starting Monday.
Djokovic faced a crushing defeat at the hands of eventual winner Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in the third round and he needs to do some major repairing work ahead of the final Grand Slam of the year, which begins on 25 August.
The Serbian has never won a title in Cincinnati, despite reaching the final four times, but he is aiming to go one step further to complete a Career Golden Masters by winning all nine prestigious ATP 1000 tournaments.
"Confidence is the hardest thing to get but easiest thing to lose," Djokovic said. "Hopefully I can go one step further this time, but I haven't been playing as well as I wanted in Toronto.
"So these couple of days I've put a lot of hours in on the practice court to upgrade my game and get my level of performance where it needs to be in order to have a chance to go far in the tournament."
The Belgrade-native will face a stiff challenge from five-time champion Roger Federer, former winner Andy Murray and Tsonga, who has made a flying start to the hard-court season.
Rogers Cup was the first tournament Djokovic played after his Wimbledon triumph and the seven-time major winner insisted that transition from grass court to hard court is tough but he is working hard to get to terms with the surface.
"I try to think about what I need to do in order to get myself to the level of, let's say, the last few days of Wimbledon or [playing] on a hard court surface -- for example the way I played in Miami [in March]," Djokovic added.
"I know my game is there and of course hard work will pay off. I just need to mentally, obviously, have a more confident approach. It does come with time. I didn't have many matches -- actually no matches -- since Miami finals on hard court before the Toronto event.
"It is different from clay, from grass. One thing is to play good on practice court, practice session. But another is to actually be in an official match when all the expectations and the mental pressures come alive, and when you have to face them."
Djokovic's last final appearance at the Lindner Family Tennis Center was against the Swiss great Federer, who outclassed him in straight sets. But, the 2011 US Open champion stressed that he is looking to go one step further this time.
"Of course I do care to win this title a lot," Djokovic insisted.
