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Scoville Jenkins Remembers His Junior Doubles Partner Novak Djokovic
· Posted by Scoop Malinowski in Bios
By Scoop Malinowski
Scoville Jenkins reached 187 in the world rankings in the ATP and earned about $350,000 in career prize money. He competed against Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Andy Roddick, Dominik Hrbaty, Jarkko Nieminen, Vince Spadea and Jonas Bjorkman on the ATP World Tour and even faced Andy Roddick at the US Open on Arthur Ashe Stadium in a featured night match in 2004.
The Atlanta, GA player also had a close encounter with the greatest champion in tennis history. Jenkins reached the 2004 Australian Open boys doubles semifinals with a kid named Novak Djokovic.
When Jenkins and Djokovic joined forces at the Aussie Open, they were each similarly ranked by the ITF in the 30s range. After they were defeated in the semifinal by the top seeded team of Brendan Evans and Scott Oudsema 36 57, their careers took different routes. Djokovic was able to secure funding to leave his native country of Serbia and attend a tennis academy in Germany run by Niki Pilic, which hosted Rainer Schuettler, then the ATP no. 5 player in the world. Djokovic’s career would soon accelerate to superstardom.
“When I saw Novak again, at the US Open that summer, he was a man—not a kid anymore—a man,” Jenkins recalls. “His forehand and his serve had been weak. Now his whole game was solid. He got the best coaching, the best physical training, the best mental training at that academy. He was a brand-new player, the Novak you see today.”
Djokovic would win his first ATP title in Amersfoort vs Nico Massu in the final in 2006. His first Masters 1000 title came in 2007 Miami and the first Grand Slam was won at AO 2008 at age 20.
Jenkins was not as fortunate as his old doubles mate but did carve out a fairly decent professional career for a few years, before embarking on a college tennis coaching career which has landed him in Washington, Wisconsin and Oklahoma State. Jenkins is currently the director of tennis at a club in West Palm Beach, FL.
Australian Open · Novak Djokovic · Scoville Jenkins · US Open
