Novak Djokovic

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  • Novak DjokovicDate of birth: May 22, 1987
  • Birthplace: Belgrade, Serbia
  • Residence: Monte Carlo, Monaco
  • Height: 6'2'' (187 cm)
  • Weight: 176 lbs (80 kg)
  • Plays: Right-handed
  • Turned Pro: 2003

  

 

Novak Djokovic,  Serbian tennis player who turned professional in 2003. An up-and-coming player at 20 years of age, Djokovichas already proven himself to be an all-court player with an abundance of talent. His major achievements have come in 2007, where he was the runner-up at the U.S. Open and reached three Masters Series finals, winning in Miami and Montréal. Also, he reached the semifinals at French Open and Wimbledon. His highest ranking on the ATP Tour is World No. 3, which he reached on July 9, 2007.

Personal

Novak Djokovic was born May 22, 1987 in Belgrade, then-Yugoslavia. He is the oldest child of father Srdjan and mother Dijana. In addition to Novak, there are two younger sons, Djordje and Marko. Djokovic started playing tennis at age 4, and when 12 he attended the Nikola Pili? Academy (for tennis) in Munich. Djokovic speaks Serbian, German and English.

He resides in Monte Carlo, Monaco and is coached by a former Slovak tennis player, Marián Vajda.

He often does humorous off-court impersonations of his fellow players, many of whom he is friends with. This became evident to the tennis world after his 2007 US Open quarterfinal win over Carlos Moyà, where he entertained the audience with impersonations of Rafael Nadal, Andy Roddick and Maria Sharapova.

Tennis career

2003-2005

In the beginning of this professional career, Djokovic mainly played in Futures and Challenger tournaments, winning three of each type of tournament.

2006

He participated in the 2006 Hopman Cup with fellow Serbian player Ana Ivanovic where the pairing narrowly missed the final.

He continued his great run in 2006 by shooting up the rankings. In May 2006, various reports appeared in the British media about Novak's mother Dijana reportedly approaching Britain's Lawn Tennis Association about her son joining British tennis ranks and the possibility of their entire 5-person family moving from Serbia to live in Britain. All the rumours didn't affect ?okovi?'s play, however. He started 2006 ranked 78th, but with an excellent run to the quarter-finals in Roland Garros and a 4th round at Wimbledon, he found himself in the top 40. Just three weeks after Wimbledon he won his maiden title in Amersfoort without losing a set defeating Nicolás Massú in the final. ?okovi? won his second career title in Metz and with this victory moved into the top 20 for the first time in his career.

2007

Djokovic began a successful year by winning in Adelaide, defeating Australian Chris Guccione in the final. At the 2007 Australian Open, he reached the fourth round, where he lost to eventual champion Roger Federer in straight sets.

In 2007, his performances in the Masters Series events at Indian Wells and Miami, where he was runner-up and champion respectively, pushed him well into the world's top ten. In those tournaments, which were his first and second Masters finals, he defeated fellow rising star Andy Murray in the semi finals without dropping a set in either match. He lost the Indian Wells final to Rafael Nadal, but avenged this defeat by beating Nadal in the Miami event, before defeating the resurgent Guillermo Cañas in the final (6-3, 6-2, 6-4). He later played in the prestigious Monte Carlo Open, only to be defeated by David Ferrer in his third round match in straight sets. He reached the quarterfinals of both Rome and Hamburg Masters, but lost to Carlos Moyà and Nadal, respectively. At the tournament in Estoril, ?okovi? defeated frenchman Richard Gasquet 7-6, 0-6, 6-1, in the final.

At the French Open he reached his first Grand Slam semifinal ever, where he lost to eventual champion Rafael Nadal.

During the 2007 Wimbledon Championships, he won an epic match against Marcos Baghdatis in the quarter finals. The match ended 7-6(4), 7-6(9), 6-7(3), 4-6, 7-5 and lasted 5 hours, just 5 minutes shy of the longest singles match in a single day in Wimbledon history. In his semi-final match, he was forced to retire against Rafael Nadal due to a back injury and foot problem.

He garnered further success in the Masters Series, winning the Canada Masters. In the final he defeated top seeded Roger Federer 7-6(2), 2-6, 7-6(2). In reaching the championship, he achieved the remarkable feat of defeating the World Nos. 1, 2 and 3 (Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Andy Roddick, respectively) on three consecutive days. This is the first time a player has accomplished this since Boris Becker in 1994. Moreover, ?okovi? became only the 2nd person, after Tomáš Berdych, to have defeated both Federer and Nadal since they became the dominant #1 and #2 players in the world. His successful performance made Björn Borg state that Djokovic "is definitely a contender to win a Grand Slam." However, Djokovic 's appearance the following week at the Cincinnati Masters, resulted disappointingly with a straight-set loss to Carlos Moyà in the 2nd round.

He nevertheless came to the 2007 US Open with a lot of confidence and expectation and reached the final where he lost to World no. 1 Roger Federer 7-6(4), 7-6(2), 6-4. On his way to the final, Djokovic won an epic 5-set (6-7(4) 7-6(5) 5-7 7-5 7-6(2)) 2nd round match against Radek Št?pánek after nearly 5 hours of play.

Davis Cup

He is good friends with fellow junior graduate (and sometimes doubles partner) Andy Murray, who was part of the Great Britain team that Serbia and Montenegro defeated in the Davis Cup in Glasgow in April 2006. Djokovic got the decisive win on 9th April, by defeating Greg Rusedski in four sets in the fourth match, giving his team a 3-1 lead in their best of 5 series. He now represents Serbia, as the country gained independence in June 2006. By winning all of his three matches, Djokovic played a key role in the 2007 play-off win over Australia, promoting Serbia to World Group in 2008.

 Equipment

?okovi? is sponsored by Wilson and Adidas. He uses a heavily customised Wilson n-Blade equipped with a hybrid of Technifibre and Wilson strings. Djokovic also wears the Adidas Barricade IV shoe.

source:  Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


 

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