Seventeen-time Grand Slam men's single title winner Novak Djokovic will attend this year's U.S. Open in New York City between August 31 and September 13, announced the player himself on Twitter on Thursday.

"I'm happy to confirm that I'll participate at #CincyTennis and #USOpen this year. It was not an easy decision to make with all the obstacles and challenges on many sides, but the prospect of competing again makes me really excited," tweeted Djokovic.

Considering that neither Roger Federer nor Rafael Nadal will appear on the hard courts of the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center, this will be a perfect opportunity for Djokovic to chase the 18th Grand Slam championship in his career.

In fact, this will also be the first Grand Slam event since 1999 that won't feature Federer or Nadal. By the way, Andre Agassi won men's singles title that year. Djokovic has already won three championships at the U.S. Open in 2011, 2015 and 2018.

Djokovic and his wife Jelena both tested positive for COVID-19 in June and they have already recovered.

Djokovic, Federer and Nadal dominated the men's singles competitions of the four Grand Slam events so much that almost no one was able to steal a title from them. In this year's Australian Open, Dominic Thiem had the chance to break their dominance but Djokovic came back to defeat him 3-2 to pocket his 17th Grand Slam title.

However, that does not mean the young generation will give up. Thiem, Daniil Medvedev, Stefanos Tsitsipas, Alexander Zverev, Matteo Berrettini, David Goffin – all among world top 10 – will again challenge Djokovic in the U.S. Open this time.