Novak Djokovic has gotten his Shanghai Masters campaign off to a fine start, coming through straight-sets wins over Alex Michelsen and Flavio Cobolli to reach the fourth round. He is set to take on Roman Safiullin for a spot in the quarterfinals next.

The Serb has also been out and about in the Chinese town and during one of those outings, he took part in a traditional ceremony that he first performed a few years ago.

Djokovic, who was last in Shanghai in 2019, returned to water a 1000-year old “fortune tree” that he had first come across during his last trip. Speaking about the experience in his post-match press conference, the Serb said he wanted to pay tribute to the “incredible” tree.

“Yeah, that fortune tree in the resort where we are staying is a tree that I have hugged and kind of put water on five years ago, so I repeated this little ceremony this year as well, kind of wishing good luck and just paying a tribute to an incredible life of that tree that is, you know, a thousand years plus old,” the 37-year-old said.

The four-time Shanghai Masters champion said it was easy to lose sense of how powerful and important nature was in the modern-day life and a tree like this one helped “ground” people, before expressing his respect for the ceremony.

“We sometimes forget how the world around us is so powerful and so old,” the Serb said. “And it carries a lot of wisdom and intelligence and power and energy, and we sometimes lose ourselves in the modern fast-pace life.”

“So, a tree like that, it just, you know, I guess, grounds me and puts me in place, and reminds me of, in a way, how small we are, you know, comparing to nature, and how respectful we must be,” he added.

Novak Djokovic also spoke about his love for nature at large, saying there was plenty of energy and good vibrations that nature sends out that can be really beneficial.

He recalled his early years in the Serbian countryside, respecting trees and flowers and all other elements of nature around him.

“I mean, Mother Nature has so much energy and incredible vibrations that we are sometimes forgetting about how beneficial they are for us,” Novak Djokovic said. “I’m a big nature lover.”

“I love to spend time on the mountains. I grew up on the mountains, so I respect every tree, every plant, every flower, every root, every stone has importance in our existence,” he added.

Djokovic is hunting for a fifth Shanghai Masters crown, having last lifted the trophy back in 2018. He is the fourth seed at this year’s tournament. If the Serb beats Roman Safiullin, he will lock horns with either ninth seed Grigor Dimitrov or Jakub Mensik in the quarterfinals of the Masters 1000 event.