Who Is Novak Đoković?

Novak Đoković (Belgrade, 22 May 1987) is a Serbian professional tennis player and one of the most successful players in the history of the sport. With 24 men’s singles Grand Slam titles he holds the men’s record, and he has spent a total of 428 weeks at world No. 1 in the ATP rankings, which is also a record.

Together with Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal, he formed the so-called Big Three that shaped world tennis for two decades. At the Paris 2024 Olympics he won the gold medal and completed the career Golden Slam. Away from the court, he is known for his humanitarian work through the Novak Djokovic Foundation.

This biography follows his path from childhood in Serbia to a place among the greatest players of all time.

Early Life and Childhood

Novak Đoković was born on 22 May 1987 in Belgrade, then part of SR Serbia and SFR Yugoslavia. His parents are Srđan and Dijana Đoković (née Žagar). His two younger brothers, Marko and Đorđe, have also played professional tennis.

Novak was the first in his family to play tennis. At the age of four he received a mini racket and a foam ball, and his parents soon sent him to a tennis camp in Novi Sad. At the time, the family ran a fast-food business on Mount Kopaonik, where his first serious tennis connection began.

In the summer of 1993, six-year-old Novak met coach Jelena Genčić at a tennis camp on Kopaonik. Genčić worked with him for the next six years. She persuaded him to hit his backhand with both hands, even though his idol, Pete Sampras, played a one-handed backhand. Đoković later said she shaped him both as a person and as a professional.

His childhood was marked by the breakup of Yugoslavia. In the 1990s Serbia lived under sanctions, and in 1999 it was bombed because of the war in Kosovo and Metohija. According to several sources, he trained for a time in an emptied swimming pool converted into a tennis court.

Because of his rapid progress, Genčić contacted Nikola “Niki” Pilić, one of the best-known coaches in Europe. In September 1999 Đoković moved to his academy in Germany, where he stayed for four years. Pilić later became known as his “tennis father”. Novak’s father Srđan took out loans to cover travel and training costs, which put the young player under enormous pressure to succeed.

Education

Details of Đoković’s formal schooling are not publicly confirmed, so they cannot be stated reliably. It is known that he grew up in a sporting environment from his earliest years and that, at the age of twelve, he went to Nikola Pilić’s academy in Germany, where he developed as both a player and a person. Sources differ on whether the academy was in Munich or in nearby Oberschleißheim.

He met his future wife, Jelena Ristić, in high school. Đoković is also a language enthusiast. Besides Serbian, he speaks English, French, German, Italian and Spanish, each to a different degree.

Early Career

Junior Years

Đoković’s first notable successes came in 2001 in the under-14 category. He won tournaments in Messina and Livorno, and in Sanremo he became European under-14 champion in singles and doubles. That same year he led Yugoslavia to victory in the European Summer Cup, and he finished the year ranked first on the European list for his age group. Andy Murray was second.

The following year, competing at under-16 level, he won major tournaments in France. In the final in La Baule he beat Gaël Monfils. In September 2002 he won his first ITF title in Pančevo. His best junior Grand Slam result was reaching the semifinals of the 2004 Australian Open.

First Professional Steps

He played his first professional match in January 2003 at a Futures event in Oberschleißheim, with a wildcard arranged by Pilić. He won his first Futures title in Belgrade that year and finished the season ranked No. 687.

In 2004 he recorded his first win at ATP level in a Davis Cup match against Latvia, and he won his first Challenger title in Budapest on his seventeenth birthday. He also made his main-draw ATP debut in Umag and finished the year ranked No. 186.

His Grand Slam debut came at the 2005 Australian Open. He ended that season ranked No. 78 and was the youngest player in the top 100. He won his first ATP title in Amersfoort in 2006, beating Nicolás Massú in the final, and soon afterwards another in Metz. In the quarterfinals of the 2006 French Open he met Nadal for the first time and had to retire with back problems, the start of one of the greatest rivalries in tennis history. He finished the year ranked No. 16.

In April 2006 he played Davis Cup for Serbia and Montenegro against Great Britain. According to media reports, his family then held talks with the British tennis federation about him representing that country. In 2009 Đoković confirmed the talks had been serious, but he stayed loyal to Serbia.

Rise to Fame

The real breakthrough came in 2007. In Miami he won his first Masters title and became its youngest champion. In Montreal he beat Andy Roddick, Nadal and Federer in a single tournament, something no player had done since Boris Becker in 1994. At the US Open he reached his first Grand Slam final but lost to Federer. He ended the year ranked No. 3.

He won his first Grand Slam at the 2008 Australian Open, at the age of twenty. He beat Federer in the semifinals and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in the final. This made him the first Serbian man to win a Grand Slam title and ended a run of 11 consecutive majors won by Federer and Nadal. That year he also won the bronze medal at the Beijing Olympics and the season-ending championship in Shanghai.

The year 2010 brought Serbia’s Davis Cup title and an important meeting with nutritionist Igor Četojević, described in the section on his diet. The turning point was 2011. He won three Grand Slams, became world No. 1 on 4 July 2011 and went 10–1 against Nadal and Federer. He won his first Wimbledon by beating Nadal, and he defeated the same rival in the US Open final.

The 2012 Australian Open final against Nadal lasted 5 hours and 53 minutes and remains the longest Grand Slam final in history. The next season Đoković won a third consecutive title in Melbourne, and from the end of 2013 he worked with Boris Becker as coach, alongside his long-time coach Marián Vajda.

In 2014 he won his second Wimbledon, beating Federer in five sets, and returned to No. 1.

Greatest Achievements

Grand Slam Titles

Đoković has won a total of 24 Grand Slam singles titles:

• Australian Open (10): 2008, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2015, 2016, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2023;
• French Open (3): 2016, 2021, 2023;
• Wimbledon (7): 2011, 2014, 2015, 2018, 2019, 2021, 2022;
• US Open (4): 2011, 2015, 2018, 2023.

With ten titles in Melbourne he holds the Australian Open record. He is the only player to have won each of the four Grand Slams at least three times, and the only man to have achieved a triple career Grand Slam.

ATP Tour Records and Dominance

The 2015 season is regarded as his best. He reached a record 15 consecutive finals, won three Grand Slams and ten so-called Big Titles. At the 2016 French Open, beating Murray, he completed the career Grand Slam and held all four major titles at once, something no man had done since Rod Laver in 1969. The feat became known as the “Nole Slam”.

In 2018, in Cincinnati, he beat Federer and became the first player in history to win every Masters event, the career Golden Masters, which he later repeated a second time. He holds the record of 40 Masters titles and seven season-ending championship titles, and he finished the year as world No. 1 a record eight times.

In May 2025 in Geneva he won the 100th ATP title of his career and became the first player to win at least one title in 20 consecutive seasons. In November 2025 in Athens he won his 101st, and on 6 October 2026 he won the China Open in Beijing, his 102nd ATP title and seventh in that city. That extended his record to 21 consecutive seasons with at least one title. Only Jimmy Connors, with 109, and Federer, with 103, have more in the Open Era.

Olympic Games and Team Competitions

For Serbia he won the Davis Cup in 2010, when Serbia beat France, and the ATP Cup in 2020. At the Olympics he won bronze in Beijing in 2008 and gold in Paris in 2024. In between he finished fourth in London in 2012, where he carried Serbia’s flag, and in Tokyo in 2021.

Rivalry with Federer and Nadal

Đoković’s career cannot be separated from his rivalry with Federer and Nadal. He has met Nadal 60 times and leads 31–29. He has beaten him at each of the four Grand Slams and leads 20–7 on hard courts. According to ATP and other sources, he has a winning record against both Federer and Nadal.

Between 2003 and 2023 the three of them together won 66 of the 79 Grand Slam titles. Their matches are famous, such as the 2019 Wimbledon final, in which Đoković beat Federer after almost five hours and saved two championship points.

In the same period he also faced new generations, above all Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner, with whom he has shared the biggest finals in recent years.

Controversies and Public Appearances

Adria Tour and the 2020 US Open Disqualification

In June 2020 Đoković organized the Adria Tour, a charity tournament in the region. During the event he and several participants tested positive for COVID-19, which drew criticism over the lack of safety measures. Đoković later apologized and said the organizers had believed the event met all health guidelines, but that they had been wrong.

At the 2020 US Open he was disqualified during his fourth-round match when he angrily hit a ball toward the back wall and unintentionally struck a line judge.

Australia 2022 and the Vaccination Issue

For the 2022 Australian Open, Đoković received a medical exemption from the vaccination requirement, based on a COVID-19 infection in December 2021. When he arrived in Melbourne on 5 January 2022 he was held by border officials and his visa was cancelled. A federal court ruled in his favor on 10 January, but on 14 January the immigration minister cancelled the visa again on public health and order grounds. The court upheld that decision and Đoković was deported on 16 January.

Because of his opposition to the vaccine mandate, he also missed several tournaments in the United States, including the 2022 US Open. He won the Australian Open a year later, in 2023.

The 2023 Roland Garros Message

After his first-round match at the 2023 French Open, Đoković wrote a message in Serbian on a camera lens, calling Kosovo and Metohija the heart of Serbia and urging an end to violence, as clashes broke out in the north of the province. The message drew divided reactions. France’s sports minister described it as political, and the Kosovo tennis federation condemned it. Đoković responded that he stands for what he believes in and that he was aware many people would disagree.

Olympic Gold and Recent Seasons

The 2024 season began with difficulty. In June he tore the meniscus in his right knee at the French Open and withdrew before the quarterfinals. Even so, in August he won gold in Paris. He beat Matthew Ebden, Nadal, Stefanos Tsitsipas and Lorenzo Musetti in turn, and in the final he defeated Alcaraz 7–6(3), 7–6(2). It was his fifth Olympic Games. He became only the fifth player in history, after Steffi Graf, Andre Agassi, Nadal and Serena Williams, to win all four Grand Slams and Olympic gold in singles.

In November 2024 he hired Andy Murray as coach, a collaboration that ended in May 2025. Boris Bošnjaković then led his team. During 2025 he reached the semifinals of all four Grand Slam tournaments, and in November he won the title in Athens.

He opened the 2026 season with a run to the Australian Open final. He beat Sinner in five sets in the semifinals but lost the final to Alcaraz 6–2, 2–6, 3–6, 5–7. At the French Open he lost in the third round to João Fonseca, and at Wimbledon he lost the semifinal to Sinner after a five-hour quarterfinal against Félix Auger-Aliassime. In October he won the title in Beijing. He ended the season with a second-round defeat to Rinky Hijikata at the Paris Masters, without qualifying for the ATP Finals.

Personal Life

Family

He began dating Jelena Ristić in 2005. They became engaged in September 2013 and married on 10 July 2014 at the Church of St. Stephen on Sveti Stefan in Montenegro, in a Serbian Orthodox ceremony. They have two children: a son, Stefan, born in October 2014, and a daughter, Tara, born in September 2017. Sources differ on the exact day of Tara’s birth, so only the year and month are given. Jelena Đoković is the director of the Novak Djokovic Foundation, and his parents and brother Đorđe are also involved in the family’s work. Đorđe is the tournament director of the Hellenic Championship in Athens.

Diet and Lifestyle

A turning point for his health and game came in 2010, when nutritionist Igor Četojević concluded that his breathing and endurance problems were linked to his diet. Đoković switched to a gluten-free and dairy-free diet, and later to a plant-based one. He described his experience in the book “Serve to Win” (sources differ on the year of publication: 2013 or 2014).

Life in Athens

Until 2020 he lived in Monte Carlo, then in Marbella, Spain. In the summer of 2025 he moved with his family to Athens, to the suburb of Glyfada, where the children were enrolled in school. He said the decision had not been planned for long and that life had changed both privately and professionally. According to many media reports, the Serbian public received the decision with mixed feelings.

Humanitarian Work

Novak and Jelena Đoković founded the Novak Djokovic Foundation in 2007. At first the foundation supported a range of causes, and from around 2012 its focus has been early childhood education. In Serbia only one in two children had access to preschool education. The foundation has built kindergartens and worked with the World Bank on early childhood development.

In 2014 Đoković donated his $500,000 prize from the Rome tournament to victims of floods in Southeast Europe. Since 2015 he has been a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador. He served as president of the ATP Player Council from 2016 to 2020, and in 2020 he co-founded the Professional Tennis Players Association (PTPA) with Vasek Pospisil, which campaigns for better earnings for lower-ranked players.

Interesting Facts

• He was the first Serbian tennis player to win a Grand Slam title.
• He is the only man to have held all four Grand Slam titles at the same time across three different surfaces.
• He won Wimbledon in 2018 as the world No. 21, after an elbow injury and surgery.
• He was the first tennis player to earn $100 million in prize money.
• He is the oldest US Open champion in the Open Era (2023) and was the oldest French Open champion at the time of his win (2023).
• He was the first player to record more than 400 Grand Slam match wins.
• In Beijing he holds a 34–0 record.
• He wrote a book on nutrition and health, “Serve to Win”.

Awards and Honors

• Laureus World Sportsman of the Year five times (2012, 2015, 2016, 2019, 2024), tied with Federer;
• Named one of Time’s 100 most influential people in the world in 2012;
• Order of St. Sava (2011) and the Order of Karađorđe’s Star, which he received in February 2012 as the first recipient after the decoration was reinstated;
• Order of the Republika Srpska;
• BTA Best Balkan Athlete of the Year a record eight times;
• All-time leader in career prize money.

Legacy and Influence

Đoković pushed the boundaries of tennis in fitness, endurance and mental strength. His consistency and longevity, including titles in 21 consecutive seasons, are rarely seen in professional sport. He has inspired a new generation of Serbian players and made tennis one of the most followed sports in Serbia.

As the first player to pass 400 Grand Slam wins, Đoković changed the standards of success in men’s tennis. His legacy also includes his work off the court, from the Foundation to the players’ association, which sets him apart from many great champions.