Novak Djokovic Honored in His Homeland

Written by: Staff on 4th December 2011

Novak Djokovic Honored in His Homeland

Novak Djokovic of Serbia returns the ball to Janko Tipsarevic of Serbia during their group A match of the ATP World Tour tennis finals in London, Britain, 25 November 2011. EPA/KERIM OKTEN |

You would be hard-pressed to find a tennis player more patriotic than Serbian Novak Djokovic. And the recent history of his war-torn nation has served to stoke the patriotic fervor not only of the world number one but of his fans, although not always in a positive way as several clashes at the Australian Open in particular with supporters of other nations that were once part of the former Yugoslavia have demonstrated.

Djokovic, despite his passion for Serbia, has always condemned such action by a small minority, and he went a stage further when he visited Banja Luka in Bosnia and Herzegovina to receive an award after readers of Nezavisne Novine voted him Person of the Year.

“I feel as the representative of all peoples of former Yugoslavia and I want to say that here, in Banja Luka,” said Djokovic, who met up with Bosnian Serb President Milorad Dodik and Serbia’s President Boris Tadic before receiving his award. “Sport really connects people. Citizens of Bosnia have shown that they love sport and respect athletes’ success.”

The former Yugoslavia was split into Bosnia, Croatia, Serbia, Macedonia, Montenegro and Slovenia following war a decade ago.

Topics: Novak Djokovic