Novak Djokovic

Novak Djokovic (Новак Ђоковић, ; born 22 May 1987) is a Serbian professional tennis player who is currently ranked world No. 1 in singles by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP).

Djokovic has been ranked No. 1 for a record total of 416 weeks in a record 13 different years, and finished as the year-end No. 1 a record eight times.

Djokovic has won a record 24 Grand Slam men's singles titles, including a record ten Australian Open titles.

Overall, he has won 98 singles titles, including a record 71 Big Titles: 24 majors, a record 40 Masters, and a record seven ATP Finals.

Djokovic is the only man in tennis history to be the reigning champion of all four majors at once across three different surfaces.

In singles, he is the only man to achieve a triple Career Grand Slam, and the only player to complete a career Golden Masters, a feat he has achieved twice.

Novak Djokovic was born on 22 May 1987 in Belgrade, SR Serbia, SFR Yugoslavia, to Dijana (Žagar) and Srdjan Djokovic.

He is of paternal Serbian and maternal Croatian descent.

His two younger brothers, Marko and Djordje, have also played professional tennis.

Djokovic began playing tennis at the age of four, after his parents gave him a mini-racket and a soft foam ball, which his father said became "the most beloved toy in his life".

His parents then sent him to a tennis camp in Novi Sad.

During the Yugoslav Wars in the late 1990s, Serbia had to endure embargoes and NATO bombings because of the Kosovo War.

but that fear and exhaustion made him tougher and drove him to pursue tennis with greater determination.

At one point he had to train inside a disused swimming pool converted into a tennis court.

In the summer of 1993, as a six-year-old, he was sent to a tennis camp organized by the Teniski Klub Partizan and overseen by Yugoslav tennis player Jelena Genčić at Mount Kopaonik, where Djokovic's parents ran a fast-food parlour.

Genčić worked with Djokovic over the following six years, convincing him to hit his backhand with two hands instead of the single hand used by his idol, Pete Sampras.

Djokovic has credited Genčić for "shaping my mind as a human being, but also as a professional".

Due to his rapid development, Genčić contacted Nikola Pilić and in September 1999 Djokovic moved to the Pilić tennis academy in Oberschleißheim, Germany, spending four years there.

Pilić made him serve against a wall for several months to improve his technique, and he had him working with a rubber exercise band for a year to improve flexibility in his wrist.

One of the players he trained with at the Niki Pilić academy was future world No. 10 Ernests Gulbis, with whom he allegedly had a fiery rivalry.

Djokovic began his professional career in 2003.

In 2008, at age 20, he disrupted Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal's streak of 11 consecutive majors by winning his first major title at the Australian Open.

He also won the bronze medal for his country at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

Djokovic is a recipient of the Order of Karađorđe's Star, Order of St. Sava, and the Order of the Republika Srpska.

By 2010, Djokovic had begun to separate himself from the rest of the field and, as a result, the trio of Federer, Nadal and him was referred to as the "Big Three" among fans and commentators.

Representing Serbia, Djokovic led the national tennis team to its first Davis Cup title in 2010, and to the inaugural ATP Cup title in 2020.

In 2011, Djokovic ascended to No. 1 for the first time, winning three majors and a then-record five Masters titles while going 10–1 against Nadal and Federer.

He remained the most successful player in men's tennis for the rest of the decade.

His other awards include being named the Laureus World Sportsman of the Year four times (2012, 2015, 2016 and 2019) and the 2011 BBC Overseas Sports Personality of the Year.

In 2015, Djokovic had his most successful season, reaching a single-season record 15 consecutive finals, winning a season-record 10 Big Titles while having a record 31 victories over the top-10 players.

Djokovic was appointed a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador in 2015.

His dominant run extended through to the 2016 French Open, where he completed his first Career Grand Slam and a non-calendar year Grand Slam, becoming the first man since Rod Laver in 1969 to hold all four majors simultaneously and setting a rankings points record of 16,950.

Beyond competition, Djokovic was elected as the president of the ATP Player Council in 2016.

In 2017, Djokovic suffered from an elbow injury that weakened his results until the 2018 Wimbledon Championships, where he won the title while ranked No. 21 in the world.

Djokovic has continued to be a dominant force on the tour since then, winning 12 major titles and completing his second and third Career Grand Slams.

Due to his opposition to COVID-19 vaccine, Djokovic was forced to skip many tournaments in 2022, notably the Australian Open and the US Open; two major events he was the favourite to win.

One year after the Australian visa controversy, Djokovic made a successful comeback to reclaim the 2023 Australian Open trophy, and shortly after he claimed the French Open to take the outright record for most men's singles majors won in history.

He stepped down in 2020 to front a new player-only tennis association; the Professional Tennis Players Association (PTPA) founded by him and Vasek Pospisil, citing the need for players to have more influence on the tour and advocating better prize money structure for lower ranked players.

Djokovic is an active philanthropist.

He is the founder of Novak Djokovic Foundation, which is committed to supporting children from disadvantaged communities.