“I shall never forget the day when a four year old boy came to my tennis camp with a bag neatly packed, as if for professional training. I asked him who packed it for him, and he replied he did it himself. When asked what he wanted to be when he grew up, without hesitation he said: “number one in the world”, the same answer I was given many years ago by Monica Seles when she was a little girl.”
At age 12 Novak moved away from home for a period of three months to work on his tennis, his parents unable to accompany him as they continued to work to support the family.
In 2006 rumours swirled that the LTA in the UK was trying to convince the Djokovic family to defect to the UK to play for Davis Cup because Andy Murray was their only promising player. Novak has since confirmed these rumours.
“Britain was offering me a lot of opportunities and they needed someone because Andy was the only one, and still is. That had to be a disappointment for all the money they invest. But I didn’t need the money as much as I had done.
In 2007 Novak had his break through year making the US Open semi finals where he became famous for his imitations of Rafa Nadal and Maria Sharapova. Novak also made the semi finals of Wimbledon a few weeks earlier after surviving a 5 hour match against Marcos Baghdatis only to retire in the semi’s against Nadal, citing back and foot injuries. In 2007 Novak won the Rogers Cup and Miami Masters title. The Rogers Cup title was particularly impressive because he beat Andy Roddick in the quarterfinals, Rafael Nadal in the semis and Roger Federer in the finals.
As defending champion of the AO Djokovic struggled in the extreme heat of the 2009 tournament which was somewhat overshadowed by huge bush fires in Victoria, the state in Australia where the Open is held. He retired in the quarterfinals against Andy Roddick with heat exhaustion and cramps and was again subject to criticism for poor conditioning and not spending enough time in hot environments to adapt to what can be an extremely hot tournament. After his retirement Roger Federer pointed out that Novak had now retired from three of the four Grand Slams which only added to the attention created by his latest withdrawal.
2008 saw Djokovic reach the heights of his career, beating Jo Wilfried Tsonga in the finals of the Australian Open, claiming his first, and so far only, Grand Slam, and the first Grand Slam for a Serbian tennis player. He also claimed Masters titles in Indian Wells and Rome and defeated Nikolay Davydenko to claim the Tennis Masters Cup title. In Beijing Djokovic claimed the bronze medal for Serbia with Nadal claiming the gold medal and Fernando Gonzalez claiming the silver.
At the beginning of 2009 Djokovic switched from a Wilson racket to Head and was widely critised for making such a risky decision when he was defending his only Grand Slam title.
Novak then went on to play some incredible clay court tennis being defeated in the finals of Monte Carlo and Rome, and the semis of Madrid in an incredible match – all at the hand of Rafael Nadal. Djokovic has been quite open that the Madrid defeat left him feeling jaded, and took him months to get over. The match also affected the rest of Nadal’s 2009 season pushing his knees to a point of no return.
The Serbian team won the Davis Cup title in their first ever final that was played against France in Belgrade. After the match the Serbian team shaved their heads in celebration. Novak was awarded the Serbian Sportsman of the Year award by the Olympic Committee of Serbia for the second time in his career.
The Davis Cup win seemed to spur Djokovic into the most incredible seven months seen in over thirty years. At the time of writing Djokovic had won 48 matches in 2011 and lost just one. Every single tournament Nole has entered, apart from Roland Garros, he has won.
