The finest Serbian tennis God referred to as Nole, is known for his unmatched skill, machine-like precision and physical fitness. He grew up playing football while both his parents were professional ski athletes. But tennis was always on his mind and it won him over as he grew up watching one of the tennis legends, Pete Sampras.
Djokovic has won 12 Grand Slam singles titles, five ATP Finals titles, 30 Masters 1000 series titles, 12 ATP World Tour 500 tournaments, and has held the No. 1 spot in the ATP rankings for a total of 223 weeks. Meanwhile, in majors, he won six Australian Open titles, three Wimbledon titles, two US Open titles and one French Open title. Became the eighth player in history to achieve the Career Grand Slam in 2016, following his victory at the 2016 French Open, he became the third man to hold all four major titles at once, the first since Rod Laver in 1969, and the first ever to do so on three different surfaces. With so many awards and titles to his hat, Novak is one of our favourite star players. His career is very well known by those who are Wimbledon fans, but here are some untold facts about him you bet you knew already.
Little Djokovic had his hands on a tennis racket for the first time when he was only four years old. It all started as he visited a tennis camp every day to watch other people play.
The 31-year-old surprisingly speaks Serbian, English, German, Italian and French. He is a self-described fan of languages.
The ITF world champion is known for his humorous off-court impersonations and has often been caught imitating his fellow players and friends on the tennis court. He also loves to dance which is evident when he flaunts some of his moves after winning a game.
The health enthusiast is gluten intolerant and with the advice of his former nutritionist, Igor Četojević, he started eating gluten-free food which has helped him overcome his past fitness and health issues.
He believes that drinking cold water slows down the digestion and diverts the blood away from where it is supposed to be, the muscles. Thus he always drinks warm water.
The first Serbian player to be ranked No. 1 by the ATP has a unique habit of bouncing the ball up to a dozen times before serving it finally. He does this to frustrate the opponents.
That is not just the strange thing about him yet. Djokovic has been celebrating his win by eating blades of grass. Whenever he is at Wimbledon, he picks up a grass blade saying it tastes like sweat. He also talks to himself while playing.
The animal lover takes his pet poodle, Pierre, everywhere he goes. He was reportedly very upset when Pierre wasn’t allowed to enter the United Kingdom during Wimbledon in 2011.
The champion has been a small part of the music video where he appeared for the song Hello by Martin Solveig. He also appeared in a cameo in the Hollywood movie The Expendables 2, but his part was cut from the final version of the film.
Novak got married to his high school girlfriend Jelena Ristic in 2014 and has a boy named Stefan and a baby girl Tara.
The 2011 BBC Overseas Sports Personality of the Year has authored a book titled Serve To Win, where he has recounted his journey from war-torn Belgrade to becoming one of the greatest tennis players of all time. The book also provides a 14-day gluten-free diet plan for fitness.
The star player launched ‘Novak Djokovic Foundation’ to help the disadvantaged children, provide financial support to children of Serbia, support the kids who lost their parents in war and finance the Serbian monasteries and churches.
