Novak Djokovic’s wife Jelena has sensationally revealed that the superstar decided to quit tennis seven years ago and took days to be convinced not to walk away by his family.
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In an interview on the In Depth with Graham Bensinger podcast this week, Jelena Djokovic said a “terrible loss” in the first round of the 2018 Miami Open had convinced her husband his time was up in the sport.
Djokovic had undergone surgery on his elbow after his Australian Open exit at the hands of South Korean dark horse Chung Hyeon earlier that year, and returned with a straight sets defeat to Benoit Paire in Miami.
“He just gathered all of us and said, ‘you know guys, I’m done’,” Jelena Djokovic said.
“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.”
Jelena said finally convincing the then 30-year-old to pick up a racquet and play a game with his son, Stefan, had helped change his mind.
“He showed up on the third or fourth day (of the holiday), and saw me and Stef playing on the court,’ she said.
“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’.”
Four months later, the rough patch was in the rearview mirror as Djokovic reached the Wimbledon final and beat South African Kevin Anderson in straight sets for his first title since the injury.
Djokovic will face Czech 24th seed Jiri Lehecka in the fourth round on Sunday after he swept past Lehecka’s countryman Tomas Machac in straight sets on Friday.
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