Serbian tennis nice Novak Djokovic has been engaged on his Greek. Earlier this week, at his family-backed Hellenic Open, Djokovic drew applause from the group at Athens’ iconic multi-purpose Panathenaic Stadium when he briefly spoke within the native language, saying ‘Good night Greece. I really like you’ throughout an on-court interview.
Sounding like a platitude {that a} international tennis star parrots at each metropolis stopover on the calendar? Solely it wasn’t. The 24-time Grand Slam champion was ‘breaking the ice’ with individuals in his new hometown, the Greek capital metropolis of Athens.
Djokovic was until just lately hailed as ‘Serbia’s biggest ambassador to the world’ by the nation’s president Aleksandar Vucic, a right-wing politician. He has, nonetheless, fallen out of favour with the federal government and has been the goal of state propaganda media shops. Since pupil protests erupted in November final 12 months when the cover of the renovated Novi Unhappy station collapsed, killing 16 individuals, Djokovic has fallen into the federal government’s dangerous books.
Protesters carry a cardboard cutout of Novak Djokovic as they arrive earlier than a rally on Nov. 1 marking the primary anniversary of the practice station catastrophe that killed 16 individuals, in Novi Unhappy, Serbia. (AP Picture)
Rebranding of the Belgrade Open because the Hellenic Open and relocating the match coincided together with his household shifting to Athens, the place his youngsters have enrolled in a college. This has occurred after Djokovic threw his weight behind the protests.
Djokovic’s current assertion to Greek publication SDNA makes for attention-grabbing studying between the traces. “It wasn’t (shifting to Athens) one thing I had deliberate for a very long time. Truly, within the final two years, issues have occurred, selections have modified in our lives, each privately and professionally. However that’s OK, that’s how life is,” he stated.
A fortnight in the past, a avenue artwork mural depicting Djokovic’s ‘pump’ celebration at Wimbledon was defaced. This, regardless of Djokovic denying the gesture was linked to the ‘pumpja’ protest slogan.
With out criticizing the president immediately, Djokovic has lent his voice to the scholar protestors. In December, Djokovic took to X. “As somebody who deeply believes within the energy of younger individuals and their want for a greater future, I imagine it’s important that their voices are heard,” Djokovic posted. He signed off with ‘with you, Novak’.
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After a third-round match on the Australian Open, Djokovic used a marker pen to put in writing ‘For Sonja’ on the digicam display screen. Sonja was injured after a automobile rammed into a bunch of scholars assembled for a blockade in Belgrade. A few months later, he shared pictures of an enormous anti-government rally in Belgrade with the caption ‘historic’.
Outdoors of social media, he made a press release when attending a basketball recreation, Serbia’s hottest sport together with soccer. Djokovic wore a sweatshirt with the phrases ‘college students are champions’ when watching the sport between Partizan and Pink Star on the Belgrade Area.
President Vucic has treaded rigorously, unwilling to brazenly criticize the vastly standard tennis participant. However a pro-government newspaper just lately referred to as him a ‘false patriot’ after his transfer to Greece got here to mild.
Until a 12 months in the past, Djokovic was the poster boy. Vucic was in Djokovic’s nook when he was deported from Australia and never allowed to defend his Australian Open title three years in the past as a result of he refused to get vaccinated in opposition to Covid-19.
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President Vucic has treaded rigorously, unwilling to brazenly criticize the vastly standard Djokovic. (Reuters Picture)
Djokovic has used his picture as a tennis legend to make pro-Serbia political statements on the court docket. In 2023, when Serbs who type a majority in northern Kosovo protested over Albanian mayors and clashed with NATO troops, Djokovic, after a first-round French Open win, wrote on a digicam lens: “Kosovo is the center of Serbia. Cease the violence.” The connection between the 2 nations has been strained after Kosovo declared independence from Serbia in 2008.
When requested after the match at Roland Garros if he was frightened about detrimental feedback, Djokovic had stated, “After all I’m conscious that lots of people would disagree, however it’s what it’s. It’s one thing that I stand for. In order that’s all.”
Now, Djokovic is talking up once more. Solely this time, he’s ruffling feathers in his personal nation. Within the podcast ‘Served with Andy Roddick’, the previous World No.1 summed up the extent to which Djokovic can go. “I’ve a lot respect for Novak… I imply, he’ll transfer to Greece due to his perception system, and uproot all the things,” Roddick stated.
Djokovic, now 38 years previous, hasn’t taken the secure route by siding with the scholar protestors, even when that path should take him and his household to Greece.