Novak Djokovic

The professional tennis player from Serbia won his first Grand Slam title at the Australian Open back in January 2008. He won matches against Roger Federer in the semi-finals and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in the final four sets. He is the first Serbian player to win the singles titles at the Grand Slam. He is also known to be the youngest player to reach the semi-finals at the four Grand Slams in the Open era.

Novak was born in Belgrade, Serbia, Yugoslavia on May 22, 1987. His two other brothers are also into the professional tennis career. Novak was trained in Nikola Pilic’s Tennis Academy, Munich when he was twelve years old. After two years, his career started as he began earning titles in the European championships - both in singles and doubles categories.

In the first years of his sporting career, Novak gained three wins each in the Challenger and Future tournaments.

In the 2007 U.S. Open, Djokovic was awarded runner-up title reaching the Masters Series five times. He won four out of the five. He competed at the semi-finals of the Wimbledon Championships and the French Open in 2007. He paired with another Serbian player, Ana Ivanovic at the 2006 Hopman Cup where they were almost unsuccessful to get into the final match.

Not only is Novak a serious professional tennis player, but possesses humour as well by impersonating Maria Sharapova and Rafael Nadal, off-court. This entertained the audience and his act became well known after his successful match against Carlos Moya in the 2007 US Open.

Novak has been on fire and has remained one of the top competitors in the sport. So far in his career, he has a record of 788-167, and boasts of 68 career titles, ranking him 7th in the most titles earned in the Open Era. He has 12 Grand Slam titles in singles, 5 Tour Finals victories, 1 Davis Cup win, and a bronze medal for the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games.

Novak is currently ranked at No. 13, although his highest rank was at No. 1, which he first attained on July 2011.