Novak Djokovic (Serbian: Новак Ђоковић, romanized: Novak Đoković, pronounced [nôʋaːk dʑôːkoʋitɕ] (About this soundlisten);[5] born 22 May 1987) is a Serbian professional tennis player who is currently ranked world No. 2 in men's singles tennis by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP).[6]
Djokovic has won 16 Grand Slam singles titles, five ATP Finals titles, 34 ATP Tour Masters 1000 titles, 13 ATP Tour 500 titles, and has held the No. 1 spot in the ATP rankings for 275 weeks. In majors, he has won a record seven Australian Open titles, five Wimbledon titles, three US Open titles, and one French Open title. By winning the 2016 French Open, he became the eighth player in history to achieve the Career Grand Slam and the third man to hold all four major titles at once, the first since Rod Laver in 1969[7] and the first ever to do so on three different surfaces.[8] He is the only male player to have won all nine of the Masters 1000 tournaments.[9][10]. Djokovic was also a member of Serbia's winning Davis Cup team in 2010 and in the 2020 ATP Cup.
Djokovic is the first Serbian player to be ranked No. 1 by the ATP and the first male player representing Serbia to win a Grand Slam singles title. He is a six-time ITF World Champion and a five-time ATP year-end No. 1 ranked player. Djokovic has won numerous awards, including the Laureus World Sports Award for Sportsman of the Year (four times)[11] and the 2011 BBC Overseas Sports Personality of the Year award. He is also a recipient of the Order of St. Sava, the Order of Karađorđe's Star, and the Order of the Republika Srpska.
Early and personal life
Djokovic's signature
Novak Djokovic (Nole) was born on 22 May 1987 in Belgrade, SR Serbia, Yugoslavia, to parents Srđan and Dijana (née Žagar). He is of paternal Serbian[15] and maternal Croatian descent.[a] His two younger brothers, Marko and Djordje, have also played professional tennis.[22]
A resident of Monte Carlo, Djokovic was coached by former Slovak tennis player Marián Vajda from 2006 until Boris Becker took over the role of head coach in December 2013.[23] Djokovic is a self-described fan of languages, speaking Serbian, English, French, German, and Italian.[24][25]
He met his future wife, Jelena Ristić, in high school, and began dating her in 2005.[26] The two became engaged in September 2013,[27] and on 10 July 2014 the couple got married on Sveti Stefan in Montenegro,[28] while a church wedding was held in the same place, on 12 July 2014, in the Church of Saint Stephen (Serbian: Црква Светог Архиђакона Стефана) which belongs to Praskvica Monastery.[29] On 24 April 2014, Djokovic announced that he and Ristić were expecting their first child.[30] Their son, Stefan, was born on 21 October 2014 in Nice, France.[31] Their daughter, Tara, was born on 2 September 2017.[32]
Djokovic began playing tennis at the age of four.[33] In the summer of 1993, the six-year-old was spotted by Yugoslav tennis player Jelena Genčić[34] at Mount Kopaonik, where Djokovic's parents ran a fast-food parlour.[35] Upon seeing the child Djokovic playing tennis, she stated: "This is the greatest talent I have seen since Monica Seles."[22]
Genčić worked with young Djokovic over the following six years before realizing that, due to his rapid development, going abroad in search of increased level of competition was the best option for his future. To that end, she contacted Nikola Pilić and in September 1999 the 12-year-old moved to the Pilić tennis academy in Oberschleißheim, Germany, spending four years there.[36] At the age of 14, he began his international career, winning European championships in singles, doubles, and team competition.[22]
Djokovic is known for his often humorous off-court impersonations of his fellow players, many of whom are his friends.[37] This became evident to the tennis world after his 2007 US Open quarterfinal win over Carlos Moyá, where he entertained the audience with impersonations of Rafael Nadal and Maria Sharapova. His impersonations have also become popular on YouTube.[37] Djokovic did an impression of John McEnroe after his fourth round match victory at the 2009 US Open, before playing a brief game with McEnroe, much to the delight of the audience.[38] Djokovic is a member of the "Champions for Peace" club, a group of famous elite athletes committed to serving peace in the world through sport, created by Peace and Sport, a Monaco-based international organization.[39]
Djokovic is a member of the Serbian Orthodox Church. On 28 April 2011, Patriarch Irinej of Serbia awarded Djokovic the Order of St. Sava I class, the highest decoration of the Serbian Orthodox Church, for his contributions to monasteries of the Serbian Orthodox Church in Kosovo and Metohija and charitable work in Serbia.[40] He is a keen fan of Serbian football club Red Star Belgrade,[41] Italian club A.C. Milan[42] and Portuguese club S.L. Benfica.[43] He is good friends with fellow Serbian tennis player Ana Ivanovic, whom he has known since the two were children growing up in Serbia, through Djokovic's uncle and Ivanovic's father.[44]
Djokovic has been reported to meditate for up to an hour a day at the Buddhist Buddhapadipa Temple in Wimbledon, and is close to monks in the complex. He has spoken of the positive power of meditation.[45][46][47]
Tennis career
Juniors
As a member of the Yugoslav national team, Djokovic reached the final of the 2001 Junior Davis Cup for players under 14, in which he lost his match in singles.[48] In juniors, Djokovic compiled a singles win/loss record of 40–11 (and 23–6 in doubles), reaching a combined junior world ranking of No. 24 in February 2004.[49] At the junior Grand Slam tournaments his best showing was at the Australian Open where he reached the semi-finals in 2004. He also played at the French Open and US Open junior events in 2003.
Start of professional career
Djokovic turned professional in 2003 by entering the ATP World Tour.[50] At the beginning of his professional career, he mainly played in Futures and Challenger tournaments, winning three of each type from 2003 to 2005. His first tour-level tournament was Umag in 2004, where he lost to Filippo Volandri in the round of 32.[51]
Djokovic made his first Grand Slam tournament appearance by qualifying for the 2005 Australian Open, where he was defeated by eventual champion Marat Safin in the first round in straight sets, after defeating future rival Stanislas Wawrinka in qualifying.[52][53] He went on to reach the third round of both Wimbledon and the US Open, coming back from two sets down to defeat Guillermo García-López in the former, and beating Gaël Monfils and Mario Ančić in the latter. Djokovic participated in four Masters events and qualified for two of them, his best performance coming in Paris, where he reached the third round and defeated fourth seed Mariano Puerta along the way.[54]
2006: First ATP titles
Djokovic reached the top 40 in the world singles rankings after making his first quarterfinal appearance at a Grand Slam event, coming at the French Open, and also by reaching the fourth round at Wimbledon that year.[55]
Three weeks after Wimbledon, Djokovic won his first ATP title at the Dutch Open in Amersfoort without losing a set, defeating Nicolás Massú in the final. He won his second career title at the Moselle Open in Metz, and moved into the top 20.[56] Djokovic also reached his first career Masters quarterfinal at Madrid during the indoor hardcourt season.[57]
On 9 April 2006, Djokovic clinched a decisive Davis Cup win against Great Britain by defeating Greg Rusedski in four sets in the fourth match of the tie, giving Serbia and Montenegro an insurmountable 3–1 lead in their best-of-five series, thus keeping the country in the Group One Euro/African Zone of Davis Cup. Afterwards, Djokovic briefly considered moving from Serbia to play for Great Britain.[58] Following this match-up, the British media spoke of Djokovic's camp negotiating with the Lawn Tennis Association about changing his international loyalty by joining British tennis ranks.[58] The nineteen-year-old Djokovic, who was ranked sixty-third in the world at the time, mostly dismissed the story at first by saying that the talks were not serious, describing them as "the British being very kind to us after the Davis Cup."[59] However, more than three years later, in October 2009, Djokovic confirmed that the talks between his family and the LTA throughout April and May 2006 were indeed serious:
Britain was offering me a lot of opportunities and they needed someone because Andy [Murray] 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. I had begun to make some for myself, enough to afford to travel with a coach, and I said, 'Why the heck?' I am Serbian, I am proud of being a Serbian, I didn't want to spoil that just because another country had better conditions. If I had played for Great Britain, of course I would have played exactly as I do for my country but deep inside, I would never have felt that I belonged. I was the one who took the decision.[60]
2007: Top 10 and first Masters title
Djokovic began 2007 by defeating Australian Chris Guccione in the final of the tournament in Adelaide, before losing in the fourth round of the Australian Open to eventual champion Roger Federer[61] in straight sets. His performances at the Masters Series events in Indian Wells, and Key Biscayne, where he was the runner-up and champion respectively, pushed him into the world's top 10.[56] Djokovic lost the Indian Wells final to Rafael Nadal, but defeated Nadal in Key Biscayne in the quarterfinals before defeating Guillermo Cañas for the title in the finals.[62]
After winning his first Master Series title, Djokovic returned to Serbia to help his country enter the Davis Cup World Group[63] in a match against Georgia. Djokovic won a point by defeating Georgia's George Chanturia.[64] Later, he played in the Monte Carlo Masters, where he was defeated by David Ferrer in the third round, and at the Estoril Open, where he defeated Richard Gasquet in the final.[65] Djokovic then reached the quarterfinals of both the Internazionali d'Italia in Rome, where he lost to Nadal, and the Hamburg Masters, where he was defeated by Carlos Moyà. At the French Open, Djokovic reached his first major semi-final, losing to eventual champion Nadal.[66]
At Wimbledon, Djokovic won a five-hour quarterfinal against Marcos Baghdatis. In his semi-final match against Nadal, he retired with elbow problems in the third set, after winning the first and losing the second set.[67]
Djokovic's next tournament was the Rogers Cup in Montreal, and he defeated No. 3 Andy Roddick in the quarterfinals, No. 2 Nadal in the semi-finals, and No. 1 Federer in the final. This was the first time a player had defeated the top three ranked players in one tournament since Boris Becker in 1994.[68] Djokovic was also only the second player, after Tomáš Berdych, to have defeated both Federer and Nadal since they became the top two players in the world. After this tournament, Björn Borg stated that Djokovic "is definitely a contender to win a Grand Slam (tournament)."[69] The following week at the Cincinnati Masters, Djokovic lost in the second round to Moyà in straight sets. Nevertheless, he went on to reach the final of the US Open, where he had five set points in the first set and two in the second set, but lost them all before losing the match in straight sets to the top-seeded Federer.[70]
Djokovic won his fifth title of the year at the BA-CA TennisTrophy in Vienna, defeating Stanislas Wawrinka in the final. His next tournament was the Madrid Masters, where he lost to David Nalbandian in the semi-finals. Djokovic, assured of finishing the year ranked No. 3, qualified for the year-ending Tennis Masters Cup, but did not advance beyond the round robin matches. He received the Golden Badge award for the best athlete in Serbia, and the Olympic Committee of Serbia declared him the best athlete in the country.[71]
Djokovic played a key role in the 2007 play-off win over Australia by winning all his matches and helping promote the Serbia Davis Cup team to the 2008 World Group.[72] In Serbia's tie against Russia in Moscow in early 2008, Djokovic was sidelined due to influenza and missed his first singles match. He returned to win his doubles match, teaming with Nenad Zimonjić, before retiring during his singles match with Nikolay Davydenko.[73]
2008: First Major title
Djokovic started the year by playing the Hopman Cup with fellow Serbian world No. 3 Jelena Janković. While he won all his round-robin matches, the team lost 1–2 in the final to the second-seeded American team of Serena Williams and Mardy Fish. At the Australian Open, Djokovic reached his second consecutive Grand Slam final without dropping a set, including a victory over two-time defending champion Federer in the semi-finals.[74] By reaching the semi-finals, Djokovic became the youngest player to have reached the semi-finals in all four Grand Slam events.[75] In the final, Djokovic defeated unseeded Frenchman Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in four sets to earn his first Grand Slam singles title.[76] This marked the first time since the 2005 Australian Open that a Grand Slam singles title was not won by Federer or Nadal.[76]
Djokovic's next tournament was the Dubai Tennis Championships, where he lost in the semi-finals to Roddick. At the Pacific Life Masters in Indian Wells, Djokovic won his ninth career singles title, defeating Mardy Fish in the final.[77] Djokovic won his tenth career singles title and fourth Master Series singles crown at the Internazionali d'Italia in Rome after defeating Wawrinka in the final.[78] The following week at the Hamburg Masters, he lost to Nadal in the semi-finals. At the French Open, Djokovic was the third-seeded player behind Federer and Nadal. He lost to Nadal in the semi-finals in straight sets
Djokovic has won 16 Grand Slam singles titles, five ATP Finals titles, 34 ATP Tour Masters 1000 titles, 13 ATP Tour 500 titles, and has held the No. 1 spot in the ATP rankings for 275 weeks. In majors, he has won a record seven Australian Open titles, five Wimbledon titles, three US Open titles, and one French Open title. By winning the 2016 French Open, he became the eighth player in history to achieve the Career Grand Slam and the third man to hold all four major titles at once, the first since Rod Laver in 1969[7] and the first ever to do so on three different surfaces.[8] He is the only male player to have won all nine of the Masters 1000 tournaments.[9][10]. Djokovic was also a member of Serbia's winning Davis Cup team in 2010 and in the 2020 ATP Cup.
Djokovic is the first Serbian player to be ranked No. 1 by the ATP and the first male player representing Serbia to win a Grand Slam singles title. He is a six-time ITF World Champion and a five-time ATP year-end No. 1 ranked player. Djokovic has won numerous awards, including the Laureus World Sports Award for Sportsman of the Year (four times)[11] and the 2011 BBC Overseas Sports Personality of the Year award. He is also a recipient of the Order of St. Sava, the Order of Karađorđe's Star, and the Order of the Republika Srpska.
Early and personal life
Djokovic's signature
Novak Djokovic (Nole) was born on 22 May 1987 in Belgrade, SR Serbia, Yugoslavia, to parents Srđan and Dijana (née Žagar). He is of paternal Serbian[15] and maternal Croatian descent.[a] His two younger brothers, Marko and Djordje, have also played professional tennis.[22]
A resident of Monte Carlo, Djokovic was coached by former Slovak tennis player Marián Vajda from 2006 until Boris Becker took over the role of head coach in December 2013.[23] Djokovic is a self-described fan of languages, speaking Serbian, English, French, German, and Italian.[24][25]
He met his future wife, Jelena Ristić, in high school, and began dating her in 2005.[26] The two became engaged in September 2013,[27] and on 10 July 2014 the couple got married on Sveti Stefan in Montenegro,[28] while a church wedding was held in the same place, on 12 July 2014, in the Church of Saint Stephen (Serbian: Црква Светог Архиђакона Стефана) which belongs to Praskvica Monastery.[29] On 24 April 2014, Djokovic announced that he and Ristić were expecting their first child.[30] Their son, Stefan, was born on 21 October 2014 in Nice, France.[31] Their daughter, Tara, was born on 2 September 2017.[32]
Djokovic began playing tennis at the age of four.[33] In the summer of 1993, the six-year-old was spotted by Yugoslav tennis player Jelena Genčić[34] at Mount Kopaonik, where Djokovic's parents ran a fast-food parlour.[35] Upon seeing the child Djokovic playing tennis, she stated: "This is the greatest talent I have seen since Monica Seles."[22]
Genčić worked with young Djokovic over the following six years before realizing that, due to his rapid development, going abroad in search of increased level of competition was the best option for his future. To that end, she contacted Nikola Pilić and in September 1999 the 12-year-old moved to the Pilić tennis academy in Oberschleißheim, Germany, spending four years there.[36] At the age of 14, he began his international career, winning European championships in singles, doubles, and team competition.[22]
Djokovic is known for his often humorous off-court impersonations of his fellow players, many of whom are his friends.[37] This became evident to the tennis world after his 2007 US Open quarterfinal win over Carlos Moyá, where he entertained the audience with impersonations of Rafael Nadal and Maria Sharapova. His impersonations have also become popular on YouTube.[37] Djokovic did an impression of John McEnroe after his fourth round match victory at the 2009 US Open, before playing a brief game with McEnroe, much to the delight of the audience.[38] Djokovic is a member of the "Champions for Peace" club, a group of famous elite athletes committed to serving peace in the world through sport, created by Peace and Sport, a Monaco-based international organization.[39]
Djokovic is a member of the Serbian Orthodox Church. On 28 April 2011, Patriarch Irinej of Serbia awarded Djokovic the Order of St. Sava I class, the highest decoration of the Serbian Orthodox Church, for his contributions to monasteries of the Serbian Orthodox Church in Kosovo and Metohija and charitable work in Serbia.[40] He is a keen fan of Serbian football club Red Star Belgrade,[41] Italian club A.C. Milan[42] and Portuguese club S.L. Benfica.[43] He is good friends with fellow Serbian tennis player Ana Ivanovic, whom he has known since the two were children growing up in Serbia, through Djokovic's uncle and Ivanovic's father.[44]
Djokovic has been reported to meditate for up to an hour a day at the Buddhist Buddhapadipa Temple in Wimbledon, and is close to monks in the complex. He has spoken of the positive power of meditation.[45][46][47]
Tennis career
Juniors
As a member of the Yugoslav national team, Djokovic reached the final of the 2001 Junior Davis Cup for players under 14, in which he lost his match in singles.[48] In juniors, Djokovic compiled a singles win/loss record of 40–11 (and 23–6 in doubles), reaching a combined junior world ranking of No. 24 in February 2004.[49] At the junior Grand Slam tournaments his best showing was at the Australian Open where he reached the semi-finals in 2004. He also played at the French Open and US Open junior events in 2003.
Start of professional career
Djokovic turned professional in 2003 by entering the ATP World Tour.[50] At the beginning of his professional career, he mainly played in Futures and Challenger tournaments, winning three of each type from 2003 to 2005. His first tour-level tournament was Umag in 2004, where he lost to Filippo Volandri in the round of 32.[51]
Djokovic made his first Grand Slam tournament appearance by qualifying for the 2005 Australian Open, where he was defeated by eventual champion Marat Safin in the first round in straight sets, after defeating future rival Stanislas Wawrinka in qualifying.[52][53] He went on to reach the third round of both Wimbledon and the US Open, coming back from two sets down to defeat Guillermo García-López in the former, and beating Gaël Monfils and Mario Ančić in the latter. Djokovic participated in four Masters events and qualified for two of them, his best performance coming in Paris, where he reached the third round and defeated fourth seed Mariano Puerta along the way.[54]
2006: First ATP titles
Djokovic reached the top 40 in the world singles rankings after making his first quarterfinal appearance at a Grand Slam event, coming at the French Open, and also by reaching the fourth round at Wimbledon that year.[55]
Three weeks after Wimbledon, Djokovic won his first ATP title at the Dutch Open in Amersfoort without losing a set, defeating Nicolás Massú in the final. He won his second career title at the Moselle Open in Metz, and moved into the top 20.[56] Djokovic also reached his first career Masters quarterfinal at Madrid during the indoor hardcourt season.[57]
On 9 April 2006, Djokovic clinched a decisive Davis Cup win against Great Britain by defeating Greg Rusedski in four sets in the fourth match of the tie, giving Serbia and Montenegro an insurmountable 3–1 lead in their best-of-five series, thus keeping the country in the Group One Euro/African Zone of Davis Cup. Afterwards, Djokovic briefly considered moving from Serbia to play for Great Britain.[58] Following this match-up, the British media spoke of Djokovic's camp negotiating with the Lawn Tennis Association about changing his international loyalty by joining British tennis ranks.[58] The nineteen-year-old Djokovic, who was ranked sixty-third in the world at the time, mostly dismissed the story at first by saying that the talks were not serious, describing them as "the British being very kind to us after the Davis Cup."[59] However, more than three years later, in October 2009, Djokovic confirmed that the talks between his family and the LTA throughout April and May 2006 were indeed serious:
Britain was offering me a lot of opportunities and they needed someone because Andy [Murray] 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. I had begun to make some for myself, enough to afford to travel with a coach, and I said, 'Why the heck?' I am Serbian, I am proud of being a Serbian, I didn't want to spoil that just because another country had better conditions. If I had played for Great Britain, of course I would have played exactly as I do for my country but deep inside, I would never have felt that I belonged. I was the one who took the decision.[60]
2007: Top 10 and first Masters title
Djokovic began 2007 by defeating Australian Chris Guccione in the final of the tournament in Adelaide, before losing in the fourth round of the Australian Open to eventual champion Roger Federer[61] in straight sets. His performances at the Masters Series events in Indian Wells, and Key Biscayne, where he was the runner-up and champion respectively, pushed him into the world's top 10.[56] Djokovic lost the Indian Wells final to Rafael Nadal, but defeated Nadal in Key Biscayne in the quarterfinals before defeating Guillermo Cañas for the title in the finals.[62]
After winning his first Master Series title, Djokovic returned to Serbia to help his country enter the Davis Cup World Group[63] in a match against Georgia. Djokovic won a point by defeating Georgia's George Chanturia.[64] Later, he played in the Monte Carlo Masters, where he was defeated by David Ferrer in the third round, and at the Estoril Open, where he defeated Richard Gasquet in the final.[65] Djokovic then reached the quarterfinals of both the Internazionali d'Italia in Rome, where he lost to Nadal, and the Hamburg Masters, where he was defeated by Carlos Moyà. At the French Open, Djokovic reached his first major semi-final, losing to eventual champion Nadal.[66]
At Wimbledon, Djokovic won a five-hour quarterfinal against Marcos Baghdatis. In his semi-final match against Nadal, he retired with elbow problems in the third set, after winning the first and losing the second set.[67]
Djokovic's next tournament was the Rogers Cup in Montreal, and he defeated No. 3 Andy Roddick in the quarterfinals, No. 2 Nadal in the semi-finals, and No. 1 Federer in the final. This was the first time a player had defeated the top three ranked players in one tournament since Boris Becker in 1994.[68] Djokovic was also only the second player, after Tomáš Berdych, to have defeated both Federer and Nadal since they became the top two players in the world. After this tournament, Björn Borg stated that Djokovic "is definitely a contender to win a Grand Slam (tournament)."[69] The following week at the Cincinnati Masters, Djokovic lost in the second round to Moyà in straight sets. Nevertheless, he went on to reach the final of the US Open, where he had five set points in the first set and two in the second set, but lost them all before losing the match in straight sets to the top-seeded Federer.[70]
Djokovic won his fifth title of the year at the BA-CA TennisTrophy in Vienna, defeating Stanislas Wawrinka in the final. His next tournament was the Madrid Masters, where he lost to David Nalbandian in the semi-finals. Djokovic, assured of finishing the year ranked No. 3, qualified for the year-ending Tennis Masters Cup, but did not advance beyond the round robin matches. He received the Golden Badge award for the best athlete in Serbia, and the Olympic Committee of Serbia declared him the best athlete in the country.[71]
Djokovic played a key role in the 2007 play-off win over Australia by winning all his matches and helping promote the Serbia Davis Cup team to the 2008 World Group.[72] In Serbia's tie against Russia in Moscow in early 2008, Djokovic was sidelined due to influenza and missed his first singles match. He returned to win his doubles match, teaming with Nenad Zimonjić, before retiring during his singles match with Nikolay Davydenko.[73]
2008: First Major title
Djokovic started the year by playing the Hopman Cup with fellow Serbian world No. 3 Jelena Janković. While he won all his round-robin matches, the team lost 1–2 in the final to the second-seeded American team of Serena Williams and Mardy Fish. At the Australian Open, Djokovic reached his second consecutive Grand Slam final without dropping a set, including a victory over two-time defending champion Federer in the semi-finals.[74] By reaching the semi-finals, Djokovic became the youngest player to have reached the semi-finals in all four Grand Slam events.[75] In the final, Djokovic defeated unseeded Frenchman Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in four sets to earn his first Grand Slam singles title.[76] This marked the first time since the 2005 Australian Open that a Grand Slam singles title was not won by Federer or Nadal.[76]
Djokovic's next tournament was the Dubai Tennis Championships, where he lost in the semi-finals to Roddick. At the Pacific Life Masters in Indian Wells, Djokovic won his ninth career singles title, defeating Mardy Fish in the final.[77] Djokovic won his tenth career singles title and fourth Master Series singles crown at the Internazionali d'Italia in Rome after defeating Wawrinka in the final.[78] The following week at the Hamburg Masters, he lost to Nadal in the semi-finals. At the French Open, Djokovic was the third-seeded player behind Federer and Nadal. He lost to Nadal in the semi-finals in straight sets
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