Alexander Crnokrak: Novak Djokovic sets good example of how to be professional

Australian world No. 656 Alexander Crnokrak has revealed that Novak Djokovic is the one player he looks up to as he is closely following the world No. 1 and observing what it takes to be a top player. 

Djokovic, who claimed a record eighth Australian Open title this year, has 17 Grand Slam titles in his collection and he is three Majors away from equaling Roger Federer's all-time Grand Slam record.

"He (Djokovic) obviously does a lot of things well, he’s number one in the world. He sets a good example of how to be professional and what the very top of levels like so definitely I’ve learned some things (from him) but then my game’s also a little bit different," Crnokrak told Tennis Australia.

This past week, Crnokrak made it all the way at the UTR Pro Tennis Series event in Brisbane after beating Maverick Banes in the final.

"It was a pretty good tournament. I played pretty well the whole week,” said Crnokrak, adding he was most pleased with his steady improvements over the last month," Crnokrak said of his win.

“I just had more matches and I was just a bit more confident with my groundstrokes and the way I served. I was working on some new things during the break and was just testing them out … I’m happy it worked out well this week.”

Crnokrak admits beating Kubler meant a lot to him 

The biggest win Crnokrak claimed en route to winning it all in Brisbane was against former world No. 91 Jason Kubler, whom he stunned in the quarterfinal.

"It was definitely one of the highlights during the week. It was good playing him. I knew it was going to be tough because he’s a very strong player and he hasn’t lost a match so far,” Crnokrak said of beating Kubler.

Crnokrak has been very active on the practice courts lately and he is happy that his work is paying off.

"I’ve just been training pretty much every day. There’s always something new I’m working on but then I’m not sure how it will work in matches, so these tournaments were perfect for me to actually test it,” Crnokrak added.

“I’m glad we got the opportunity, that Tennis Australia and UTR made these tournaments possible for us.”

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