Novak Djokovic

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Novak Djokovic

Djokovic at 2007 Australian Open
Nickname(s)	Nole,[1] The Djoker[2]
Country	Serbia
Residence	Monte Carlo, Monaco
Date of birth	May 22, 1987 (1987-05-22) (age 21)
Place of birth	Belgrade, Serbia then Yugoslavia
Height	1.87 m (6 ft 1+1⁄2 in)
Weight	80.0 kg (176 lb/12.60 st)
Turned pro	2003
Plays	Right-handed; two-handed backhand
Career prize money	US$ 7,955,470
Singles
Career record:	154 - 58
Career titles:	10
Highest ranking:	No. 3 (July 9, 2007)
Grand Slam results
Australian Open	W (2008)
French Open	SF (2007, 2008)
Wimbledon	SF (2007)
US Open	F (2007)
Doubles
Career record:	15 - 24
Career titles:	0
Highest ranking:	No. 134 (August 20, 2007)
Infobox last updated on: June 9, 2008.

Novak Djokovic (Serbian: Новак Ђоковић, Novak Đoković or Novak Djoković, pronounced [ˈnɔvaːk 'ʥɔːkɔviʨ], listen (help·info)), 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.^{[citation needed]}

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.

[edit] 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.^[3] His two younger brothers, Đorđe and Marko, are also tennis players with professional aspirations.^[4] 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 Monika Seles."^[3]

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.^[3] He resides in Monte Carlo, Monaco and is coached by a former Slovak tennis player, Marian Vajda.^[5] 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.^[6]

In February 2008, Djokovic conveyed his support via video link to a mass rally in Belgrade against Kosovo's declaration of independence from Serbia.^[7]

[edit] Tennis career

[edit] 2003-2005

In the beginning of his professional career, Djokovic mainly played in Futures and Challenger tournaments, winning three of each type.

[edit] 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.^[8] 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, Djokovic lost in the third round to former World No. 1 Lleyton Hewitt 6-3, 6-1, 6-2.

[edit] 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. 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, 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.^{[citation needed]} 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 Djokovic "is definitely a contender to win a Grand Slam."^[9] 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).

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 Ferrer 6–4, 6–4; Gasquet 6–4, 6–2; and Nadal 6–4, 6–4.

[edit] 2008

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. 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.^[10] 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, 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 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, Djokovic was the third-seeded player behind 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.

[edit] 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, 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.

[edit] Playing style

This section does not cite any references or sources. (May 2008) Please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources. Unverifiable material may be challenged and removed.

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 preffered groundstroke is the backhand.^[11] 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.

[edit] Equipment

Djokovic endorses/is sponsored by Wilson and adidas; he is currently using the Wilson [K]Factor [K]Blade Tour racquet strung with Technifibre X-One Biphase 17 Gauge. Djokovic also wears the adidas Barricade V shoes and the adidas Edge Group clothing.^[12]

[edit] Career statistics

[edit] Grand Slam singles finals (2)

[edit] Win (1)

Year	Championship	Opponent in Final	Score in Final
2008	Australian Open	Jo-Wilfried Tsonga	4–6, 6–4, 6–3, 7–6(2)

[edit] Runner-up (1)

Year	Championship	Opponent in Final	Score in Final
2007	US Open	Roger Federer	7–6(4), 7–6(2), 6–4

[edit] ATP Masters Series singles finals (5)

[edit] Wins (4)

Year	Championship	Opponent in Final	Score in Final
2007	Sony Ericsson Open, Key Biscayne, Florida	Guillermo Canas	6–3, 6–2, 6–4
2007	Rogers Cup, Montreal	Roger Federer	7–6(2), 2–6, 7–6(2)
2008	Pacific Life Open, Indian Wells, California	Mardy Fish	6–2, 5–7, 6–3
2008	Internazionali d'Italia, Rome	Stanislas Wawrinka	4–6, 6–3, 6–3

[edit] Runner-up (1)

Year	Championship	Opponent in Final	Score in Final
2007	Pacific Life Open, Indian Wells, California	Rafael Nadal	6–2, 7–5

[edit] Career finals (14)

[edit] Singles (13)

[edit] Wins (10)

Legend Grand Slam (1) Tennis Masters Cup (0) ATP Masters Series (4) ATP Tour (5)

Titles by Surface Hard (7) Clay (3) Grass (0) Carpet (0)

No.	Date	Tournament	Surface	Opponent in the final	Score in the final
1.	July 17, 2006	Dutch Open Tennis Amersfoort, Amersfoort, Netherlands	Clay	Nicolas Massu	7–6(5), 6–4
2.	October 2, 2006	Open de Moselle, Metz, France	Hard (I)	Jurgen Melzer	4–6, 6–3, 6–2
3.	January 1, 2007	Next Generation Adelaide International, Adelaide, Australia	Hard	Chris Guccione	6–3, 6–7(6), 6–4
4.	April 1, 2007	Sony Ericsson Open, Key Biscayne, Florida, U.S.	Hard	Guillermo Canas	6–3, 6–2, 6–4
5.	April 29, 2007	Estoril Open, Estoril, Portugal	Clay	Richard Gasquet	7–6(7), 0–6, 6–1
6.	August 12, 2007	Rogers Cup, Montreal, Canada	Hard	Roger Federer	7–6(2), 2–6, 7–6(2)
7.	October 14, 2007	BA-CA TennisTrophy, Vienna, Austria	Hard (I)	Stanislas Wawrinka	6–4, 6–0
8.	January 27, 2008	Australian Open, Melbourne	Hard	Jo-Wilfried Tsonga	4–6, 6–4, 6–3, 7–6(2)
9.	March 23, 2008	Pacific Life Open, Indian Wells, California, U.S.	Hard	Mardy Fish	6–2, 5–7, 6–3
10.	May 11, 2008	Internazionali d'Italia, Rome	Clay	Stanislas Wawrinka	4–6, 6–3, 6–3

[edit] Runner-ups (3)

Legend Grand Slam (1) ATP Masters Series (1) ATP Tour (1)

No.	Date	Tournament	Surface	Opponent in the final	Score in the final
1.	30 July 2006	Croatia Open Umag, Umag, Croatia	Clay	Stanislas Wawrinka	6–6(1) retired
2.	18 March 2007	Pacific Life Open, Indian Wells, California, U.S.	Hard	Rafael Nadal	6–2, 7–5
3.	9 September 2007	US Open, New York City	Hard	Roger Federer	7–6(4), 7–6(2), 6–4

[edit] Doubles (1)

[edit] Runner-up (1)

No.	Date	Tournament	Surface	Partner	Opponents in the final	Score
1.	January 7, 2007	Adelaide, Australia	Hard	Radek Stepanek	Wesley Moodie & Todd Perry	6–4, 3–6, 15-13

[edit] Singles performance timeline

To help interpret the table below a legend is located here, which explains what each abbrieviation and color coded box represents in the performance timeline.

Terms to know
SR	the ratio of the number of singles tournaments won to the number of those tournaments played	W-L	player's Win-Loss record
Performance Table Legend
NH	tournament not held in that calendar year (usually Olympics)	A	did not participate in the tournament
LQ	lost in qualifying draw	#R	lost in the early rounds of the tournament (RR = Round Robin)
QF	advanced to but not past the quarterfinals	SF	advanced to but not past the semifinals
F	advanced to the finals, tournament runner-up	W	won the tournament

To prevent confusion and double counting, information in this table is updated only once a tournament or the player's participation in the tournament has concluded. This table is current through the French Open in Paris, which ended on June 8, 2008.

Tournament	2004	2005	2006	2007	2008	Career SR	Career W-L
Grand Slam tournaments
Australian Open	A	1R	1R	4R	W	1 / 4	10–3
French Open	A	2R	QF	SF	SF	0 / 4	15–4
Wimbledon	A	3R	4R	SF		0 / 3	10–3
U.S. Open	A	3R	3R	F		0 / 3	10–3
Grand Slam SR	0 / 0	0 / 4	0 / 4	0 / 4	1 / 2	1 / 14	N/A
Grand Slam W-L	0-0	5-4	9-4	19-4	12-1	N/A	45-13
Year-End Championship
Tennis Masters Cup	A	A	A	RR		0 / 1	0–3
ATP Masters Series
Indian Wells Masters	A	A	1R	F	W	1 / 3	11–2
Miami Masters	A	A	2R	W	2R	1 / 3	7–2
Monte Carlo Masters	A	A	1R	3R	SF	0 / 3	4–3
Rome Masters	A	A	LQ	QF	W	1 / 2	7–1
Hamburg Masters	A	A	2R	QF	SF	0 / 3	6–3
Canada Masters	A	LQ	A	W		1 / 1	5–0
Cincinnati Masters	A	1R	2R	2R		0 / 3	1–3
Madrid Masters	A	LQ	QF	SF		0 / 2	5–2
Paris Masters	A	3R	2R	2R		0 / 3	2–3
Masters SR	0 / 0	0 / 2	0 / 7	2 / 9	2 / 5	4 / 23	N/A
Masters W-L	0-0	2-2	5-7	24-7	17-3	N/A	48-19
Olympic Games
Summer Olympics	A	NH	NH	NH		0 / 0	0–0
Career Statistics
Year	2004	2005	2006	2007	2008	N/A	Career
Tournaments Played	3	11	20	24	10	N/A	68
Titles	0	0	2	5	3	N/A	10
Runner-ups	0	0	1	2	0	N/A	3
Hardcourt W-L	0–1	2–3	17-9	43-11	17–4	N/A	79-28
Grass W-L	0–0	2–1	4–2	6–2	0-0	N/A	12–5
Carpet W-L	1–0	3–2	5–2	1–1	0-0	N/A	10–5
Clay W-L	1–2	4–5	14–5	18–5	16–3	N/A	53–20
Overall W-L	2–3	11–11	40–18	68–19	33–7	N/A	154–58
Win %	40%	50%	69%	78%	83%	N/A	73%
Year End Ranking	186	78	16	3		N/A	N/A

[edit] ATP Tour career earnings

Year	Majors	ATP wins	Total wins	Earnings ($)	Money list rank
2003	0	0	0	2,704	937
2004	0	0	0	40,790	292
2005	0	0	0	202,416	114
2006	0	2	2	644,940	28
2007	0	5	5	3,927,700	3
2008	1	2	3	2,579,711	1
Career	1	9	10	7,398,261	46

[edit] Challengers and futures titles (6)

Legend

Challengers (3)

Futures (3)

No.	Date	Tournament	Surface	Opponent in the final	Score
1.	June 23, 2003	Belgrade, Serbia	Clay	Cesar Ferrer-Victoria	6–4, 7–5
2.	May 3, 2004	Szolnok, Hungary	Clay	Marko Tkalec	6–4, 6–2
3.	May 17, 2004	Budapest, Hungary	Clay	Daniele Bracciali	6–1, 6–2
4.	August 9, 2004	Belgrade, Serbia	Clay	Flavio Cipolla	6–4, 6–3
5.	November 1, 2004	Aachen, Germany	Carpet	Lars Burgsmuller	6–4, 3–6, 6–4
6.	May 9, 2005	San Remo, Italy	Clay	Francesco Aldi	6–3, 7–6(4)

[edit] References

[edit] See also

• Tennis performance timeline comparison (men)
• Serbia Davis Cup team

[edit] External links

• Official site (English) (Serbian)
• ATP Tour profile for Novak Djokovic
• ITF profile for Novak Djokovic
• Davis Cup profile for Novak Djokovic

Awards
Preceded by Rafael Nadal	ATP Most Improved Player 2006-07	Succeeded by –

v • d • e Australian Open men's singles champions* * Open Era · (1969) Rod Laver · (1970) Arthur Ashe · (1971–72) Ken Rosewall · (1973) John Newcombe · (1974) Jimmy Connors · (1975) John Newcombe · (1976) Mark Edmondson · (1977 [Jan]) Roscoe Tanner · (1977 [Dec]) Vitas Gerulaitis · (1978–79) Guillermo Vilas · (1980) Brian Teacher · (1981–82) Johan Kriek · (1983–84) Mats Wilander · (1985) Stefan Edberg · (1986) No competition · (1987) Stefan Edberg · (1988) Mats Wilander · (1989–90) Ivan Lendl · (1991) Boris Becker · (1992–93) Jim Courier · (1994) Pete Sampras · (1995) Andre Agassi · (1996) Boris Becker · (1997) Pete Sampras · (1998) Petr Korda · (1999) Yevgeny Kafelnikov · (2000–01) Andre Agassi · (2002) Thomas Johansson · (2003) Andre Agassi · (2004) Roger Federer · (2005) Marat Safin · (2006–07) Roger Federer · (2008) Novak Djokovic

Association of Tennis Professionals | Top ten male tennis players as of June 9, 2008
1. ▬ Roger Federer 6. ▬ Andy Roddick 2. ▬ Rafael Nadal 7. ▲ James Blake 3. ▬ Novak Djokovic 8. ▼ David Nalbandian 4. ▬ Nikolay Davydenko 9. ▲ Stanislas Wawrinka 5. ▬ David Ferrer 10. ▼ Richard Gasquet

Persondata
NAME	Đokovic, Novak
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Ђоковић, Новак; Djokovic, Novak
SHORT DESCRIPTION	Serbian tennis player
DATE OF BIRTH	May 22, 1987
PLACE OF BIRTH	Belgrade, SFR Yugoslavia
DATE OF DEATH
PLACE OF DEATH