Djokovic beats Tsonga on home-turf in Mens’ Quarterfinals at Roland Garros, Paris. Federer’s next. (photos: Thomas Coex, AFP/Getty Images)
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Tag Archives: Novak Djokovic
Nole!!!
5 JunNole…chill….
17 May
(Getty Images)
Djokovic shows best and worst to reach quarter-finals
By Simon Cambers
ROME | Thu May 17, 2012 8:17pm IST
(Reuters) – World number one Novak Djokovic demonstrated how to smash a racquet and how to cope with adversity as he reached the quarter-finals of the Rome Masters on Thursday.
In a blustery wind, Djokovic mangled his racquet after losing the first set to Juan Monaco of Argentina but recovered from a break down in the second set to clinch a 4-6 6-2 6-3 win.
From 1-2 in the second set it was as if somebody had flicked a switch as a dominant Djokovic won 20 of the next 24 points to level the match.
Monaco, ranked 15th, could not sustain his level and Djokovic eased away to set up a meeting with Argentina’s Juan Martin Del Potro or Jo-Wilfried Tsonga of France.
“I hope the children watching don’t do that,” a smiling Djokovic told a news conference, referring to his racket-smashing. “But I show my emotions out there. That’s who I am.
“I struggled with the wind today and I was a bit defensive and passive in the first set but once I was more direct I started to play much better.”
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Nole don’t like the blue court!
12 May
World No. 1 Novak Djokovic is in danger of suffering an early exit at the 2012 Madrid Open unless he tempers his emotions on the court.
Djokovic struggled in his first match against No. 137 Daniel Gimeno-Traver, ultimately winnning 6-2, 2-6, 6-3. It wasn’t the dominant performance we’re used to seeing from Djokovic in the early rounds, and he was furious about the unconventional blue clay that’s being used in this year’s Open.
Per BBC.com:
To me that’s not tennis. Either I come out with football shoes or I invite Chuck Norris to advise me how to play on this court. I hit five balls throughout the whole match. With everything else, I was just trying to keep the ball in the court.
When you slide on the red clay you have a feeling you can stop and recover from that step. But here, whatever you do, you are always slipping. Not a single player – not woman, not man – I didn’t hear anyone say ‘I like blue clay’.
Our Serb is p-i-s-s-e-d! :)
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“…lessons on patriotism, but not in a patriotic way…” Djokovic on Kosovo, Croats, etc.
22 Apr
Something we should all strive for — one more reason to love this kid.
I just knew it, though. I knew he was southern, or from an Old Serbia/Kosovo family. What is it exactly? Can I dare say it’s because he looks so Albanian? Nobody will get angry, right? I’ve established my Serbophile credentials, haven’t I?
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Pfffffffffff…….gamw…..
22 Apr“Nadal Beats Djokovic to Win Monte Carlo Final”
That’s ok. A guy like Nole thrives on being hungry anyway… Still Number One.
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Nole! Nole! Nole!
20 AprNovak Djokovic beat Alexander Dolgopolov at the Monte Carlo Masters on Thursday, just hours after finding out his beloved grandfather had died. After almost succumbing at first to the shock and grief, he rallied and emerged victorious, advancing to the quarterfinals. Then, walking off the court, he broke into tears, unable to speak to interviewers.
From the Telegraph:
“The opening set was almost uncomfortable to watch, for Djokovic was so far from being himself. Normally a superb judge of attacking options, he came out swiping at the ball as if blaming it for what had just happened.
A couple of enormous forehands were winners, but plenty more flew long, and Dolgopolov had the first set 6-2.
That seemed to do the trick for Djokovic’s concentration. The fog cleared from his eyes and he romped through the second set 6-1.”
Then he beat Robin Haase today to advance to the semifinals.
Here’s a “60 Minutes” interview with him from March with some footage of him with his grandfather, among other things. His relationship to his childhood trainer is particularly sweet (he calls her “kardia mou/kalbim/my heart” as he’s walking through the gate in the final scene):
I wonder if he would’ve agreed to the interview though, if he had known beforehand of the segment’s condescending voice-over comments about Serbia and the lame questions that would be posed to him. In any event, Djokovic answers with a smiling turning of the tables, taking — maybe unconsciously — Simon’s attempt to have a twenty-four-year-old tennis star answer the segment’s stupid implications of Serbian guilt and turning it into a statement on Serbian toughness. No Bob Simon, Roger Federer doesn’t constantly carry the heavy burden of making Switzerland feel good about itself, its role as an international center of money-laundering and secret banker to world dictators, its racist immigration and asylum policies, and its cushy, amoral “neutrality” because, despite all that, the Swiss seem to feel just fine about themselves and Switzerland isn’t villainized constantly and internationally pariah-fied like Serbia still is. It’s i-n-f-u-r-i-a-t-i-n-g how current and accepted these simplistic, patronizing interpretations of the Yugoslav wars of the 90’s still are twenty years later.
But blow all that and enjoy Nole’s incorrigible Serbian swagger. It’s such a refreshing difference from the mincing p.c. humility you’d probably get out of so many other men in his place and in our time, or out of some American athlete who’d be talking about “God” and his family.
Watch a strong young man flush with pride in himself and his deeds.
‘Cause too many someones, somewhere, probably think he’s “a little inappropriate.”
Vjecnaja pamjat for Novak’s much loved grandfather and always onto bigger and greater victories for him. Your fans are always beside you.
P.S. he beat Berdych today (Saturday) and goes to the final against Nadal tomorrow!
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Jadde: from Bosnia to Bengal 