Pursuit of Federer's record spurred Djokovic to compete in U.S. Open

Novak Djokovic decided to travel to New York for the U.S. Open amid the COVID-19 pandemic because the 17-times Grand Slam champion did not want to pass up on the opportunity to close in on Roger Federer’s record tally of 20.

Federer will not be at Flushing Meadows this year after he took the year off to recover from a knee surgery while defending champion Rafael Nadal joined a number of top seeds in refusing to travel to the U.S. due to COVID-19 concerns.

Djokovic told The New York Times that he cannot say it's the main reason why he is in New York , but it's one of the reasons.

He added that he came very close to skipping the tournament as well.

[Source: Reuters]