Former world no.1 Novak Djokovic has been nowhere near his best this year with the Serb winning only the Qatar Open so far. He suffered early exists in most of his tournaments this year with his best performance since winning the Qatar Open coming at the Madrid Open where he lost to Rafael Nadal in the semi-finals.
Prior to the start of the Madrid Open, Djokovic announced he was parting ways with three members of his coaching staff as he thought it necessary to get back to his best.
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So far it has worked as the Serb managed to reach only his second semi-finals of the year at Madrid. He will be hoping to build on that in the Rome Masters as he looks to get to his best form before the French Open where he is the defending champion.
Djokovic, who was also the defending champion at the Madrid Open, said during a recent interview that he feels that he is in transition at the moment.
"If I could describe my tennis in one word, I feel like I'm in transition. From the beginning of my career, I have been very fortunate to experience only an upwards direction in my success and results. I have been playing at a high level and with consistent results for many years," ATP's official website quoted Djokovic as saying.
"After winning Roland Garros, I didn't know how I was going to feel. I never had that issue after winning a big trophy, of bouncing back and finding new ways to motivate and inspire myself."
"But last year I found some emptiness for the first time in my life in terms of motivation. I needed a few months to think about things and get that mojo back on the court. My game just hasn't been there. I'm happy I reached the semi-finals in Madrid, which has been my best result this year. It shows me I'm on the right path."
Djokovic is set to take part in the Internazionali BNL d'Italia (Rome Masters) next and the Serb will be looking to add a second title to his name here as he looks to continue to win at least one clay-court Masters 1000 crown.
While the former world no.1 is struggling, the current world no.1 Andy Murray is also going through a similar problem. The Scot turned 30-years old today and he too is hoping to turn his horrible start to 2017 around at the Internazionali BNL d'Italia, where he is the defending champion.
Just like Djokovic, Murray will be looking to win his second title of the year at Rome and despite being the defending champion he knows he will not find it easy. Murray is set to take on Italian Fabio Fognini in his first match in Rome.
"If you perform well, the conditions can suit your game, you can have a good run. Hopefully I can do that. So it's quite a different way of playing here. It's more finding a way, I think, to adjust back to these conditions," Murray said.
