Interesting question to Novak Djokovic after his third round, three set AO win vs Tomas Etcheverry: “When you first came on tour, you had a big personality and were very expressive. I’m wondering if there were ever any older players that made criticisms to you or gave you advice to do things that made you want to change your behavior?”
Novak Djokovic: “That’s a good question. I mean, I know certainly Federer didn’t like the way I was behaving at the beginning. I think it didn’t sit with him well. I don’t know about the others. I guess I wasn’t the favorite type of guy to some of the top guys because I was not afraid to say that I want to be the best player in the world. I was kind of – not kind of – I was confident. I felt like I have the game to back it up. I never, ever lacked respect. Whenever I start a match, before the match or finish the match, I would always greet the opponent, always acknowledge. Respect is something that I was taught that needs to be present regardless of what is happening. Obviously on the court a lot of things can happen in a kind of heat of a battle. It was very long time ago now, 20 years since I made my first debut I think on the professional tour. It’s really hard to say who liked me more or less. I think I named one, so I don’t know. I can’t recall others.”
Question: “Did you try to listen to them or ignore them and try to stay true to yourself?”
Novak Djokovic: “To who?”
Question: “Whoever was saying something negative to you.”
Novak Djokovic: “It was fueling me even more. I mean, if I made a mistake, I would admit it and, of course, say I make a mistake, I raise my hand, I apologize or whatever. But if the criticism came with no particular reason I think, then I would just keep going the kind of direction that I chose, and that’s it. I knew and I know today that you can’t have everyone liking you, who you are, how you play, how you behave, what you talk about. It’s normal. We’re all different. We are all different preferences. As far as Shelton’s level of confidence and coming out, I don’t mind that actually at all. I think it’s great. You got to believe. I’m all for that. I support 100% a young player coming out on the court, like Prizmic did the other night against me, and Shelton is doing coming out believing in his capabilities that he can challenge the best players in the world. I don’t dislike that at all. But there is obviously some kind of line, non-visible line, of acceptable behavior I guess towards the other player. If a player steps over that line, then obviously it starts being annoying. That’s when you react or you don’t react, whatever. It just depends. But I’m all for young players showing confidence and speaking, always with respect, towards the older guys who are on the tour, but being confident in themselves and their tennis.”
Novak’s father Srdjan once revealed in an interview that Federer physically attacked young Novak but did not provide any details, nor did the media every follow up on that intriguing allegation. There was also a famous physical confrontation in the US Open locker room with an enraged Andy Roddick after their QF duel on Ashe, that has not been explored.
Young Lleyton Hewitt irritated a lot of ATP players with his fist pumping and yelling CMON, particularly the Spanish players and South Americans. Hewitt, of course, was not deterred by the criticism and became world no. 1 and won two Grand Slam titles and the Davis Cup for Australia.
Djokovic, of course, has won 24 Grand Slam titles and held the no. 1 ranking for a record 409 weeks.
Andy Roddick · AO · Novak Djokovic · Rafael Nadal · Roger Federer
