By Bill Simons
Novak Djokovic is a man who believes in fate, but he believes you make your own.
So where would he be if the country’s leading tennis coach didn’t come to run a camp opposite his parent’s pizza restaurant in the remote mountains near Montenegro? And where would Serbian tennis be without Novak? Where would tennis be without Serbians?
Who knows?
What we do know is that Djokovic isn’t just the best player in the world—he has grown from an unrefined kid,; a newbie a bit adrift on the scene; a clown given to imitating (well, mocking) his fellow players; a boy whose support team was out of control; an athlete whose conditioning was suspect; a competitor whose nerve was shaken at prime time when he got to the very biggest stages.
Novak has stepped up.
He tightened up his team. He upgraded his conditioning and his game. He led his tiny nation to Davis Cup champion glory in 2010, and in 2011 promptly unleashed perhaps the greatest single season any pro has delivered, winning 43 matches in a row and ten tournaments, including three Grand Slams.
More than this, the Serb has grown into a reflective man. Oh yes, he’s still a showman who, in the right context, loves to dance with ball girls, star in a talent show, joke with the press, laugh with the crowd, or be one of the fun-loving boys in the locker room. But Djokovic is now a Serbian national hero with an international audience. His voice has gravitas, his opinion matters. So he talks about Kosovo, which he feels shouldn’t have independence from Serbia. He speaks of religion and how each of us should think for ourselves; that what underlies all religion is a truth which applies to us all. He can talk about culture and the value of language—he speaks six or seven. And he can reflect on luck and fate.
Novak’s fate has been curious.
He catapulted from a small, isolated land far off the traditional tennis map to become No. 1, a sportsman known on all continents.
Yet, he has had to endure. There were breathing issues and dietary problems. He now jokes that, like himself, his dog Pierre follows a non-gluten diet.
Sadly, during last year’s Masters tournament in Monte Carlo, Djokovic’s beloved grandfather, Vladimir, died. Novak was heartbroken, and promptly suffered a dismal loss to his ace rival Nadal at the tourney. But later, he would generously share his favorite memories of traveling alone with his grandpa as a young teen on the trolleys in Munich, far from the mountain village where he was raised.
Also last year, Novak’s father, Srdjan, was hospitalized with a serious respiratory ailment from which he is still recovering.
Then this weekend came the news of the death of Djokovic’s mentor, Jelena Gencic, who he considered to be a second mother. He had visited her in Belgrade about three months ago, where she spoke to him about the importance of winning this year’s French Open, the one major he has yet to capture. She wanted to get a picture of Novak, herself, and all four of the Grand Slam trophies.
But that is not to be.
What will happen, says Novak, is that he’ll carry out the vision and teachings of a woman who was so dedicated to teaching tennis and being a life guide; a woman who had no children and had never been married, except to a sport they play with a yellow ball.
Gencic was anything but yellow. She courageously survived bombings and held practices as bombers flew above. Above all, she was a pioneer who shaped a man of substance. One who, after his racket speaks, talks about the beauty and challenges of life.
Below are excerpts of Djokoivic’s press conference reflections on Gencic:
QUESTION: Would it be fair to say that the last 24 hours have been difficult?
NOVAK DJOKOVIC: It hasn’t been easy, but this is life. Life gives you things, takes away close people in your life, and Jelena [Gencic] was my first coach, like my second mother. We were very close throughout my whole life, and she taught me a lot of things that are part of me, part of my character today, and I have the nicest memories of her.
This is something that will stay forever, and hopefully I will be able to continue on and follow up where she stopped, with her legacy, because she left so much knowledge to me and to the people that were close to her.
I feel the responsibility also to continue on doing that in the future, because she worked with kids between five and six years to 12, 13 years old, and she was dedicating all her life to that generation and to tennis. She never got married, she never had kids, so tennis was all she had in life.
She was 77, and before she passed away two days ago, last week she was giving lessons to kids. So she didn’t really care about the nature of the illness. She’d had breast cancer. She survived that.
She’s one of the most incredible people I ever knew. So it’s quite emotional.
Q: Do you think that was the right thing, for your team to send you out [against Grigor Dimitrov in the third round] without telling you the sad news?
ND: It was the right thing … Regardless of the timing, it’s still a shock.
Q: A lot of us think of Serbs as very passionate, fiery people. I was fortunate enough to meet Jelena … [It] seemed to me she was not like that. She was very calm. She spoke quite slowly … Was she in some ways not a typical Serb?
ND: We are very emotional people, but we do have also the calm side of our culture and character. She definitely was very composed … very complete in every aspect of her life.
She knew exactly what she needed to do on the court. And also in her private life, she never showed her weakness. That’s something that everybody who knew her closely could learn from her, because, as I said, regardless of her injuries during her handball career and tennis, playing and coaching, she never showed that. She never showed when she was injured or sick, when she was unhappy. She was always trying to stay positive and smile, and she was transcending that to everybody who was nearby.
And she was an incredibly intelligent woman. She didn’t really practice with everybody, you know. She knew exactly [how] to recognize the potential of the tennis players. That’s why, for me, she was the best coach for that young generation that I ever met … People underestimate the importance of … [the] professional tennis player{‘s] start, beginning, the childhood early ages when you’re four, five years old [through] to when you’re 14. This is when you’re developing all your abilities. It’s when [it’s] important to have somebody so knowledgeable. So she was great.
Q: A while ago you were good enough to share your favorite memory about your late grandfather. What was your favorite memory with [Jelena]? And talk about the cultural side, the Pushkin and Tchaikovsky and all of that.
ND: [There were] many, many great moments. In one way, the experience that I had with my grandfather’s passing away last year helped me a little bit to kind of stay tough this time, because it took me a long time last year to recover. It was very emotional.
This year, of course, again, [a] very close person [passed,] so another shock for me. But, I’m handling it better. I’m trying to focus my thoughts on the nicest memories … that we had and spent the moments together. The things she taught me and the conversations we had and the drills we did on the court, all these things, bring a smile to my face.
It’s the best thing you can have when somebody close passes away, because their spirit will always be with you, because it’s in your mind.
So I know that her spirit will be always with me and always on the court, because this is what she always loved to do. It’s her favorite place in the world, and I’ll make sure that her legacy continues.
Q: It’s obviously very difficult for you emotionally as it was last year in Monte Carlo. How are you able to find strength from that? And do you use that now as a source of inspiration to honor the memory of these close people?
ND: Absolutely. I feel even more responsible now to go all the way in this tournament. I want to do it for her because she was a very special person in my life.
I remember the last conversation we had two weeks ago about Roland Garros, and she really never held any words to me or to anybody close. That’s why people respected her, because she was honest and open.
She told me, “Listen, you have to focus, you have to give your attention to this tournament. This is a tournament you need to win.” She was giving me this kind of inspiration and motivation even more. So now I feel in her honor that, I need to go all the way. But … it’s not about me only. There are so many great players around … It gives me that inner strength, to push even harder.
Q: Other players wouldn’t have talked about this in the press room and they would have liked to keep that private. There are other players who don’t show their emotions on court. You do both. You’re very open here and … on court. How does that help you deal with things and with pressure in your career?
ND: There are things that you keep for yourself and things that you share with everybody. I was always trying to be openhearted towards people and express myself honestly and truthfully, as I always did.
So that’s the way I have been taught and from my parents, from my family, and from Jelena, also. This is who I am. I believe that everybody should be who they are and believe in what they are.
And again, I respect everybody’s different characters and ways of life, [so] I cannot generalize and say, “Okay, this is the way you should be,” because it’s very individual.
Q: Can you just clarify when you spoke to her—two weeks ago?
ND: I saw her just before Dubai tournament, so like two months ago.
Q: Did you visit her at home?
ND: Yeah, yeah.
Q: You had just a social visit?
ND: Yeah.
Q: A couple of weeks ago you talked about how you believe in destiny. Do you think all of this sort of thing is just another contributing factor to what you might be able to achieve?
ND: Well, passing away of your close and special person in your life is not something that I was wishing for, absolutely. But as I said, it’s the life, you have to move on, and you have to move on and accept the things that are presented to you, and try to stay tough. I believe [in] this destiny. I believe things are happening for a reason. You can control your own destiny. That’s also what I believe in.
