Novak Djokovic is at present chasing a record-extending eleventh Australian Open Grand Slam title in Melbourne, and is ready to face Jiri Lehecka within the fourth spherical on Sunday. The Serbian ace is also aiming to clinch a record-extending twenty fourth Grand Slam males’s singles title.
Novak Djokovic offers his spouse Jelena a kiss as he celebrates together with his household within the crowd after beating Spain’s Carlos Alcaraz of their Paris 2024 males’s singles last.(AFP)
He’s already 37-years-old, and is the one one remaining from the ‘Big Three’, with Rafael Nadal saying his retirement final yr. In the meantime, even rival Andy Murray retired after the Paris Olympics 2024, and has joined his teaching employees.
He hasn’t dropped any retirement hints but, and appears set to proceed for at the least two extra seasons, contemplating his psychological and bodily power. However in keeping with his spouse Jelena, Novak was about to finish his profession seven years in the past, and it took days to persuade him to take a u-turn from his choice.
Novak Djokovic’s spouse Jelena drops bombshell retirement story
In an interview with In Depth, she revealed that after his shock loss to Benoit Paire within the first spherical of the 2018 Miami Open, Djokovic had given up, and had determined to retire. “He just gathered all of us and said, ‘you know guys, I’m done’,” she stated.
“I’m like, ‘but you can’t quit’, and we were crying, we were like ‘what are you doing? This is not the time’.
“It was just crazy … we went on a holiday together. When he decides he doesn’t want to play tennis … he doesn’t want anything to do with tennis, and I love tennis.”
Then Jelena revealed that it was solely after a recreation of tennis with their son Stefan that he modified his thoughts. “He showed up on the third or fourth day (of the holiday), and saw me and Stef playing on the court,” she stated.
“Luckily he saw how much fun we were having … he was like, ‘can I have a racquet, please?’. He took a few balls and starting serving, and he was like, ‘it’s not feeling bad, it’s OK – I’m going to call Marian (Vajda), I’m going to ask him to come back and be my coach again’,” she added.
Djokovic had a disappointing 2024 season, the place he didn’t win any Grand Slams, and fell down the rankings to No. 7. The one optimistic in his marketing campaign final yr was the Paris Olympics 2024, the place he clinched gold. The Serbian has additionally recently been outspoken in his response to the dealing with of Jannik Sinner and Iga Swiatek’s doping instances, criticising the investigation.