Meet the Serbian journalist who knows the 'noble' side of Novak Djokovic

Vojin Velickovic says the legendary tennis player is a genuinely good human being off the court

Vojin Velickovic (left) with Novak Djokovic at the 2004 Australian Open when the latter was competing in the junior division of the Grand Slam Down Under. He lost in the semifinal. — Photo courtesy Michael Babic

Rituraj Borkakoty

Published: Sat 4 Mar 2023, 8:43 PM

Unlike Jelena Gencic, the legendary tennis coach who saw a future world number one in a six-year-old Novak Djokovic, Serbian tennis writer Vojin Velickovic did not expect his young compatriot to scale great heights when he first saw him wield a racquet.

The former Tennis Editor at Sportski, a Serbian sports journal, Velickovic never thought Novak was going to become a big champion.

"Of course, I heard about him when he was only 12. He was already at Pilić Tennis Academy (in Germany), and there were stories about him because, before going to the Pilić tennis academy, he was training under the famous coach Jelena Gencic in Serbia," Velickovic recalled.

Gencic earned legendary status as a coach after training players like Monica Seles and Goran Ivanisevic in her tennis club.

A former tennis player in the erstwhile Yugoslavia who passed away in 2013, Gencic also worked for a television channel in Serbia.

Occasionally, she would bring her brightest pupil to the studio.

"I actually first saw Novak on TV when he was a kid. In one of the interviews, he said he wanted to become world number one. People saw it and he attracted interest," Velickovic said.

"And then when he was 14, he won the European championship, which was a big thing at that age. Monica Seles at that age had also won it."

Despite Djokovic's incredible exploits at youth level, Velickovic found it hard to believe that his football and basketball-obsessed country was about to produce a tennis player who would break all records.

Vojin Velickovic at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships.

"At that time, no one believed in Serbia that we can have a big tennis star because we never had that kind of big players. We had Monica Seles, but she grew up in the US," he said.

"We didn't have enough courts. In fact we only had clay courts, no hard courts, not enough facilities to produce big tennis players. And that''s the reason Monica left for the US."

Velickovic, who covered his first Grand Slam as a reporter in 1989 when Michael Chang famously beat Stefan Edberg in the French Open final, says Djokovic's record-breaking exploits in tennis also demanded a lot out of him as a journalist.

"I was the editor of tennis for 40 years. But the last 15 years have been very demanding because of Novak. We have to be alert all the time," said Velickovic who now works for TV Sportklub.

Dealing with Djokovic has never been a problem, though, for this veteran journalist.

"He is good with the media back home. In Belgrade, whenever he is in his tennis academy, when I see him, he always agrees to talk. He has never declined an interview request. And sometimes, we just chat like friends."

So what is the other side of the 22-time Grand Slam-winning icon that only a few people like Velickovic can claim to know?

"He is noble. He is a guy who wants to help everyone in his country and in other countries too. Whenever he sees something bad, he wants to help," he said.

Velickovic then cited PTPA (Professional Tennis Players Association), which was founded by Djokovic in 2019, as an example to show how the world number one is taking initiatives to help lower-ranked players earn more money from the game.

"Look, Novak is the best player in the world. He has so much money, but he is trying to help other players through PTPA," he said.

"In one of his press conferences here (Dubai), he said that more than one billion people watch tennis, but only 400 players (men and women) can make a living out of tennis.

"So he wants to improve the condition of lower-ranked players. He is genuine and honest in his efforts."

The Serbs, says Velickovic, will never forgive Australia after Djokovic's deportation ordeal last year.

"You know what happened in Australia last year, the Australian people blamed him. It's strange, they should have blamed their own government authorities for the mess," he said.

"Novak only went there after they gave him the visa. But they (people in Australia) were only blaming him.

"Look, Novak is not only a great champion in Australia, but he also helped them when they were battling a massive bushfire (in 2019). And they completely forgot that he was one of the people who helped their country in that difficult moment!"

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