The secret behind Novak Djokovic’s return to his world-beating best? It emerged on Sunday night, when the new US Open champion revealed that a five-day hiking trip with wife Jelena had been the ­inspiration behind his back-to-back grand-slam titles.

Djokovic equalled Pete Sampras’s tally of 14 major titles when he overcame Juan Martin del Potro in three closely fought sets – 6-3, 7-6, 6-3. He was asked how he had turned his poor early form this year into a dominant sequence of 26 wins from 28 matches, and thus climbed back from a low point of No 22 in the world to his new position of No 3. “[Marco] Cecchinato has made me realise a lot of things after that loss to him in Roland ­Garros,” replied Djokovic.

“I was so close to the desired level, and then I completely underplayed that match. I had to kind of disconnect a little bit. I went hiking with my wife for five days in the French mountains.

“We just isolated ourselves and took things from a different perspective. Ever since, the tennis is completely different for me. In terms of results, I played finals of Queen’s, won Wimbledon, won Cincinnati and won US Open. I guess we’ll be hiking some more very soon.”