Serbian tennis ace and the winner of 21 singles Grand Slam titles, Novak Djokovic, has said he still had the “passion” and “hunger” to play at the highest level, even though he decided to skip two majors this year—the Australian Open and the US Open—owing to his choice to remain unvaccinated against COVID-19.

The Serbian has seen his ATP ranking nosedive from No.1 to No.7 this year due to the 35-year-old missing the two majors, and the Wimbledon—which Djokovic won defeating Australia’s Nick Kyrgios—being stripped of ATP and WTA ranking points for not allowing Russian and Belarusian players from competing this year.