Novak Djokovic (born May 22, 1987 in Belgrade, Serbia (part of Yugoslavia at the time), is a Serbian professional tennis player. In January 2008, he won his first Grand Slam title at the Australian Open. After a straight sets win over World No. 1 and defending champion Roger Federer in the semifinals, Djokovic won the final in four sets against Jo-Wilfried Tsonga. He thereby became the first player representing Serbia ever to win a Grand Slam singles title and the youngest player in the open era to have reached all four Grand Slam semifinals. Novak Djokovic was the runner-up at the 2007 US Open and has reached five Masters Series finals, winning four of them. He also reached the semifinals of the 2007 and 2008 French Opens and the 2007 Wimbledon Championships. Biography Djokovic was born May 22, 1987 in Belgrade, Serbia, then Yugoslavia. He was born to father Srđan and mother Dijana, and is the oldest of their three sons. His two younger brothers, Đorđe and Marko, are also tennis players with professional aspirations. Djokovic started playing tennis at the age of four, and was spotted by Yugoslav tennis legend Jelena Gencic, who stated "This is the greatest talent I have seen since Monica Seles." At twelve, he spent three years at Nikola Pilić's tennis academy in Munich, and at fourteen his international career began as he won European championships in singles, doubles, and team competition. He resides in Monte Carlo, Monaco and is coached by a former Slovak tennis player, Marian Vajda. Novak Djokovic speaks Serbian, German, Italian, and English. Djokovic often does humorous off-court impersonations of his fellow players, many of whom are his friends. This became evident to the tennis world after his 2007 US Open quarterfinal win over Carlos Moya, where he entertained the audience with impersonations of Rafael Nadal and Maria Sharapova. In February 2008, Novak Djokovic conveyed his support via video link to a mass rally in Belgrade against Kosovo's declaration of independence from Serbia. Tennis career 2003-2005 In the beginning of his professional career, Djokovic mainly played in Futures and Challenger tournaments, winning three of each type. 2006 He participated in the 2006 Hopman Cup with fellow Serbian player Ana Ivanovic, with the pairing narrowly missing the final. He continued his great run in 2006 by shooting the rankings. In May 2006, various reports appeared in the British media about Djokovic'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 Djokovic's play, however. He started 2006 ranked 78th, but with an excellent path to the quarterfinals at the French Open and a fourth-round appearance 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 Nicolas Massu in the final. Djokovic won his second career title in Metz, and with this victory moved into the top 20 for the first time in his career. At the US Open, Novak Djokovic lost in the third round to former World No. 1 Lleyton Hewitt 6-3, 6-1, 6-2.
2007 Djokovic began the year by winning in Adelaide, defeating Australian Chris Guccione in the final. At the Australian Open, he lost in the fourth round to eventual champion Roger Federer in straight sets. His performances at the Masters Series events in Indian Wells, California and Key Biscayne, Florida, where he was the runner-up and champion respectively, pushed him well into the world's top ten. In those tournaments, which were his first and second Masters Series finals, he defeated Andy Murray in the semifinals without dropping a set in either match. Novak Djokovic lost the Indian Wells final to Rafael Nadal but defeated Nadal in the Key Biscayne event before defeating the resurgent Guillermo Canas in the final. He later played in the Masters Series Monte Carlo Open where he was defeated by David Ferrer in the third round in straight sets. He reached the quarterfinals of both the Internazionali d'Italia in Rome and the Masters Series Hamburg but lost to Carlos Moya and Nadal, respectively. At the tournament in Estoril, Djokovic defeated Frenchman Richard Gasquet in the final. At the French Open, Djokovic reached his first Grand Slam semifinal ever, where he lost to eventual champion Nadal. During Wimbledon, Novak Djokovic won a five hour quarterfinal against Marcos Baghdatis 7–6(4), 7–6(9), 6–7(3), 4–6, 7–5. The match lasted just 5 minutes shy of the longest singles match in a single day in Wimbledon history. In his semifinal match, he was forced to retire against Nadal due to a back injury and foot problem. Djokovic then won the Masters Series Rogers Cup in Montreal. He defeated World No. 3 Andy Roddick in the quarterfinals, World No. 2 Nadal in the semifinals, and World 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. And Djokovic was only the second player, after Tomas Berdych, to have defeated both Federer and Nadal since they became the top two players players in the world. After this tournament, Bjorn Borg stated that Novak Djokovic "is definitely a contender to win a Grand Slam." However, the following week at the Western & Southern Financial Group Masters in Cincinnati, Ohio, Djokovic lost in the second round to Carlos Moya in straight sets. He nevertheless reached the final of the U.S. Open. Djokovic had five set points on serve in the first set and two against serve in the second set but lost them all before losing the final to top-seeded Federer in straight sets. On his way to the final, Djokovic won a nearly five hour second round match against Radek Stepanek 6–7(4), 7–6(5), 5–7, 7–5, 7–6(2). Novak Djokovic returned after a minor injury to Vienna, to beat Stanislas Wawrinka in the final 6–4, 6–0 and take his 5th title of the year. The win enabled Djokovic to gain closer on Nadal in the ATP Tour Rankings. Djokovic's next tournament was the Madrid Masters, where he lost to David Nalbandian 6–4, 7–6(4) in the semifinals. At the Paris Masters, he was upset by Frenchman Fabrice Santoro. Djokovic, then assured of finishing the season as World No. 3, went to Shanghai for the Tennis Masters Cup, being the first player to arrive. He was also the first player to exit the tournament, losing all three of his round-robin matches to David Ferrer 6–4, 6–4; Richard Gasquet 6–4, 6–2; and Nadal 6–4, 6–4.
Novak Djokovic started the year by playing the Hopman Cup along with fellow Serbian World Number 3 Jelena Jankovic. He won all of his round-robin matches and the team, seeded number one, reached the final. They lost 2–1 to the second-seeded American team consisting of Serena Williams and Mardy Fish. At the Australian Open, Djokovic defeated the top-seeded and defending champion Roger Federer in the semifinals 7–5, 6–3, 7–6(5). This ended at ten Federer's streak of consecutive Grand Slam finals. Djokovic also became the first person to beat Federer in straight sets in a Grand Slam tournament since Gustavo Kuerten in the 2004 French Open. Novak Djokovic then defeated unseeded Frenchman Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in the final to earn Serbia's and his first ever Grand Slam singles title. At the age of 20 years and 250 days, he was the youngest male to win the Australian Open singles title since Stefan Edberg in 1985. This win also enabled Djokovic to surpass US$6 million in career prize money. At the Open 13 tournament in Marseille, Djokovic was upset by Frenchman Gilles Simon in the second round 6–2, 6–7(6), 6–3. Djokovic's next tournament was the Dubai Duty Free Men's Open, where he lost in the semifinals to World No. 6 Andy Roddick 7–6(5), 6–3. At the Masters Series Pacific Life Open in Indian Wells, California, Djokovic won his ninth career singles title, defeating American Mardy Fish in the three-set final. At the Masters Series Sony Ericsson Open in Key Biscayne, Florida, Djokovic was upset in the second round by Kevin Anderson 7–6, 3–6, 6–4. On red clay at the Monte Carlo Masters, Novak Djokovic retired from his semifinal match with Federer while trailing 6–3, 3–2. However, two weeks later, Djokovic won his tenth career singles title and fourth Master Series singles crown at the Internazionali d'Italia in Rome after defeating Stanislas Wawrinka in the final. The following week at the Hamburg Masters, Djokovic lost to Rafael Nadal in a three-hour semifinal match 7–5, 2–6, 6–2. Had Djokovic won the match, he would have replaced Nadal as World No. 2. At the French Open in Paris, Novak Djokovic was the third-seeded player behind Roger Federer and Nadal. Djokovic lost to Nadal in the semifinals 6–4, 6–2, 7–6(3). Had Djokovic won the match, he would have replaced Nadal as World No. 2. 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 April 9, 2006 by defeating Greg Rusedski in four sets in the fourth match, giving his team a 3–1 lead in their best of 5 series, thus keeping Serbia and Montenegro in the Group One Euro/African Zone of Davis Cup. He now represents Serbia, since Montenegro 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, where it is scheduled to play against the first seeded Russia, 8 – 10 February 2008. During the tie in Moscow, Novak Djokovic was sidelined due to influenza and was forced to miss his first singles match in the match against Russia. He returned to win his doubles match with Nenad Zimonjic before being forced to retire during his match with Nikolay Davydenko. He was leading by two sets to one when he was forced off with dizziness. Playing style Novak Djokovic is an all-court player. His greatest strengths includes his dominant groundstrokes, especially the forehand which are powerful, deep, well angled, and hit with strong topspin, although his preferred groundstroke is the backhand. With considerable speed, his serve is one of his major weapons winning many free points from his flatter first serve and employing a sharp curving kick serve as his second serve. Djokovic, while very sound and powerful from the baseline, often finishes points by coming to the net similar to Roger Federer. He also utilizes a well-disguised backhand underspin dropshot and sliced backhand (groundstroke) in his repertoire. Equipment Novak Djokovic endorses/is sponsored by Wilson and adidas ; he is currently using the Wilson [K]Factor [K]Blade Tour tennis racquet strung with Technifibre X-One Biphase 17 Gauge. Djokovic also wears the adidas barricade V shoes and the adidas Edge Group clothing. Career statistics Grand Slam singles finals (2) Win (1) Runner-up (1)
Go to the List of Male and Female Tennis Players Source of this article: Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia |
