VIDEO SHOWS: PRESS CONFERENCES WITH TENNIS PLAYERS NOVAK DJOKOVIC AND JANNIK SINNER AHEAD OF THEIR OPENING MATCHES AT THE SHANGHAI MASTERS RESENDING WITH COMPLETE SCRIPT SHOWS: SHANGHAI, CHINA (OCTOBER 2, 2025) (ATP MEDIA/IMG – Editorial use only. No Monetisation. No resales.) 1. WORLD NUMBER FIVE, NOVAK DJOKOVIC, ENTERING PRESS CONFERENCE 2. WHITE FLASH 3. (SOUNDBITE) (English) WORLD NUMBER FIVE, NOVAK DJOKOVIC, ON CHANCE OF PLAYING SINNER IN THE SEMI-FINALS, SAYING: “I'd love to have a chance to play Jannik (Sinner). That means that I'll reach the semi-finals, which would be great. We'll see. Obviously, I mean, he's been winning most of the matches that we've played against each other lately. And we played finals last year here. It was a good match. So hopefully, I get my chance again.” 4. WHITE FLASH 5. (SOUNDBITE) (English) WORLD NUMBER FIVE, NOVAK DJOKOVIC, ON TENNIS SCHEDULE, SAYING: “Well, I was personally against the extension of the days of duration of the Masters 1000 events. I felt from the very beginning – I was against it. Actually, even when I was in the council, I think I was at the time president of the council. So, I was not supportive of that. I think for the players, not good. From one perspective, you could say, I mean, for me, at my age right now, to have days between the tournaments is good. But I think overall, for most of the players, it just takes away the days in the schedule, in the calendar. And personally, I'm not supportive of that. I understand that there is (an) upside to the tournaments and so forth, but as a player, I never liked that.” 6. WHITE FLASH 7. (SOUNDBITE) (English) WORLD NUMBER FIVE, NOVAK DJOKOVIC, ON TENNIS SCHEDULE, SAYING: “The monopoly that has been created in this sport has been very strong for the last three or four decades. And there are people who just don't want to change things in our sport, you know, for the better in terms of when it comes to the players' welfare, because everybody works in their own interests. And that's a logical, I guess, business sense. In the end, as a player, and as someone that has been playing on the highest level for more than 20 years, I can say that the players are not united enough. And players are not, participating enough when they should be. So, they make the comments and they complain and then they go away. And then if something is wrong after a certain amount of time, they come back again. But you have to invest the time. You have to invest the energy, yourself, not your agent, not your team, not your parents, not anybody; yourself. To dedicate yourself to understand how the system works, to understand what are the things that can be done, to be reversed, to be improved in terms of the players interest. And for that to happen, you need the top players, particularly, to sit down, roll up their sleeves and really care a bit more about participating and understanding all of the hot topics, so to say. Because going out in the media and talking about this and that, okay, it might stir up some energy or some attention, but in the end of the day, it's not going to change. Nothing is going to change. I know it from my personal experience, trust me. So yeah, it's, it's quite a complex topic.” / DJOKOVIC LEAVING PRESS CONFERENCE 8. (SOUNDBITE) (English) WORLD NUMBER FIVE, NOVAK DJOKOVIC, ON PLANS FOR THE REST OF THE SEASON, SAYING: “I don't think is going to be the last time playing here, but you never know. I don't make any long-term plans. It's what I said in New York after finishing the tournament there. So, I know I'm going to be playing here, starting tomorrow. And then Athens. You know, that's the plan for the rest of the year. Let's see if I add up one or two tournaments more to the schedule.” 9. WHITE FLASH 10. (SOUNDBITE) (English) WORLD NUMBER TWO, JANNIK SINNER, ON SHANGHAI MASTERS, SAYING: “Now, a new week is coming. New challenge is coming up. First round matches are never easy, especially when you arrive from one tournament to another one and you have only one practice session ahead of you. So, let's see how we handle that. But you know, generally talking, I'm very happy.” 11. SINNER ENTERING NEWS CONFERENCE 12. WHITE FLASH 13. (SOUNDBITE) (English) WORLD NUMBER TWO, JANNIK SINNER, ON TENNIS SCHEDULE, SAYING: JOURNALIST, ASKING: “Do you agree with other players who've expressed criticism that the schedule and called for it to be modified so players can rest more?” SINNER, SAYING: “Yeah, I mean, I don't want to criticise anything. For me, everyone thinks in different ways. As I always say, we can still choose. As players, you just have to understand what the priority is for ourselves. I always made choices, even last year, sometimes dropping some tournaments, but the schedule is what it is, you know. If you want to play a tournament, you have to play a tournament. If not, you make another choice to rest or practice, you know. And that's it. So yeah, it is what it is.” 14. WHITE FLASH 15. SINNER LEAVING PRESS CONFERENCE STORY: Novak Djokovic will return to action at the Shanghai Masters on Friday (October 3) and the Serb said he’d be thrilled to reach the semi-finals for the chance to take on world number two Jannik Sinner once again. “I'd love to have a chance to play Jannik (Sinner). That means that I'll reach the semi-finals, which would be great. We'll see. Obviously, I mean, he's been winning most of the matches that we've played against each other lately. And we played finals last year here. It was a good match. So hopefully, I get my chance again,” Djokovic said. The 38-year-old reached the final in Shanghai last year, losing to Sinner in straight sets. The Serb has not played a professional match since his U.S. Open semi-final defeat by Carlos Alcaraz. Djokovic has won the Shanghai Masters four times and will be making his 14th main-draw appearance as he looks to finish the season strong after being shut out of the Grand Slams by world number one Alcaraz and Sinner. The 24-times major winner has struggled to find a way past the new duo dominating men's tennis in the last two seasons but had said in New York that best-of-three set matches gave him a better chance. Djokovic also weighed in on criticisms from some players that the tennis schedule has become increasingly demanding with fewer rest days between tournaments. “Well, I was personally against the extension of the days of duration of the Masters 1000 events. I felt from the very beginning – I was against it,” he said. “The monopoly that has been created in this sport has been very strong for the last three or four decades. And there are people who just don't want to change things in our sport, you know, for the better in terms of when it comes to the players' welfare, because everybody works in their own interests.” (Production: Kurt Michael Hall)
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