Novak Djokovic rejected emotional wife request and 'felt empty' immediately after

Novak Djokovic admitted that he "felt empty" after rejecting his wife and family's proposal to take a break from tennis. The 39-year-old looked back on his career with Piers Morgan and reflected on a time when passion and joy had been completely taken away from the sport he dominated.

Djokovic highlighted a match at Wimbledon against Sam Querrey where, amid a rain interruption, he isolated himself from his team and stared blankly at a wall for half an hour, before returning to the court and being defeated. In the weeks prior to SW19, he had been urged to step away from tennis.

Speaking to Piers Morgan, the Serb said: "I held all four Slams at the same time and I was one of the very few players in history to do that, I was telling all the people around me, my wife, family, they were like: 'Maybe you should take a little break and come back because you achieved it all'.

"No no no, don't worry about motivation, I have no issue with that. I am never going to experience something I have read or heard other athletes and their experiences, where it comes to the point where you are empty.

"I was like 'what is that? I am never going to experience that' and then I experienced it a few weeks later, for the first time ever. It was Court 1 at Wimbledon, third round, I was playing Sam Querrey. I think it was third or fourth set and we had a rain interruption, we had two rain interruptions.

"The first one my team joined me and we talked and I had a little stretch with the physio, went back and kept going, I was two sets to love down, won the third set, gained the momentum and felt better about being on the court. Another rain delay, I went back to the isolated room and my team comes in. I am like: 'Guys you have to leave me alone, I just have to be by myself'.

"I didn't want a drink, I just stared at the wall for 20, 30 minutes and that's the first time I felt really empty. That's when I realised that all the stress and tension and excitement and anticipation, all the strong emotions I was feeling for whatever years, coming to that moment, my brain had enough and I needed to reset.

"You have to reset and I did it many times in my career. I lost that match and I had a break and I came back and skipped a couple tournaments, played the final of the US Open and then that's the year that Andy Murray ended up as the year-end No. 1. He beat me at the O2 Arena.

"After that match, even though I lost the points I had over him, everyone thought it was going to be a piece of cake finishing at No. 1, he went on a streak of four, five tournaments in a row and I didn't care if I was going to finish No. 1 or not. That was the stage or condition I was at at that moment.

"I just wanted to regain the love and passion I had for the sport, because I lost it."

Djokovic was beaten 7-6(6) 6-1 3-6 7-6(5) by Querrey in the third round of Wimbledon in 2016, where his hopes of completing a Calendar Slam were dashed by the American.

It had marked Djokovic's first defeat at a Major since the 2015 French Open final. Andy Murray would go on to win the tournament, defeating Milos Raonic in the final.