Did you know that the 24-time grand slam champion Novak Djokovic’s life was not always a bed of roses? The Serb had his own share of struggles while growing up, but managed to overcome them with the support of his family, without giving up his passion and love for tennis.
A clip from a podcast with Lewis Howes has now gone viral in which the former World number 1 opened up about how his family stood by him like a rock through his tennis journey. Despite struggling to make ends meet in a war-prone Serbia, Djokovic’s parents didn’t let him give up his dream.
“It is an expensive sport. You gotta afford a racket, coach, balls, all the stuff but we went through all this stuff. My father saw that spark in my eyes and said okay, this is what you’re going to do.”
At the time Nole was growing up, the country of Serbia was inflicted by war, causing financial hardships for his family. He has spoken about the challenges of war on various occasions, sharing how the ‘embargo’ didn’t allow him to compete outside the country for a few years.
“I don’t know if I’d pursue the career of tennis player if it wasn’t for the belief and support that I had from my parents.”
Interestingly, tennis is not the only sport that intrigues Djokovic. He shared that “skiing was and is still a great passion” of his. It is also the sport that his family members used to play and helped his parents meet and fall in love.
“My father was a professional skier. My aunt, my uncle, they were all competitors and they were all competing on a high level, regional level and European level. That’s actually how my parents as well. My father was instructor and she was skiing. So the whole thing you know and here I am (laughs).”
The Paris 2024 gold medalist didn’t forget to speak about another important influence in his tennis career, his ‘tennis mother’ Jelena Gencic- a former Serbian tennis player. He dwelled on how she played a role of a mentor, not just in his tennis career but also in his personal life. He also revealed that she had predicted his world number 1 ranking very early in his career.
“I came to the first tennis practice ever, I came in with a little bag. I had an extra tshirt. I had a little bottle of water and whatever I prepared that I was very much into it. I wanted to be ready and so she found that very odd and she found that very very special. So she said there’s something about him that is different and she was telling my parents that they should support me.”
The current world number 2 stressed that if Jelena and his parents had not shown faith in him or had not pushed him to continue playing tennis, he would have ended up playing some other sport despite loving tennis.
