Novak Djokovic
Tennis PlayerBorn: 22 May 1987
Birthplace: Belgrade, Yugoslavia (now Serbia)
Best known as: The Serbian tennis star who won Wimbledon in 2011
Novak Djokovic is the Serbian tennis pro whose brilliant undefeated streak to start the 2011 season pushed him to the top of the men's professional game. Novak Djokovic was born in Belgrade just a few years before the breakup of Yugoslavia and the tumult of the Bosnian War. At age eight he began training with Jelena Gencic, the celebrated Yugoslavian coach. From 2001 to 2003 he tore his way through the junior circuits, and he played his first professional match, in Belgrade, in 2003. He won his first pro title at the 2006 Dutch Open. That year he reached the quarterfinals of the French Open and then finished the year ranked #16 in the world. Novak Djokovic won his first major, the Australian Open, in 2008. Still, he had a reputation as a jovial goof (his funny impersonations of other competitors earned him the nickname "Djoker") and as a player who was easily injured. That all changed in 2011, when he began the season by winning 40 straight matches and the Australian Open before losing to Roger Federer in the semifinals of the French Open. Counting his last two matches in 2010, his total winning streak was 42 straight match wins -- just shy of the modern record of 46 set by Guillermo Vilas in 1977. He then won Wimbledon 2011 (beating rival Rafael Nadal), which made him the #1 ranked player in the world.
Extra credit : Novak Djokovic is 187 centimeters (6' 1.5") tall, according to his official site. The site also notes that his idol growing up was 1990s tennis star Pete Sampras... His nickname is "Nole"... He is the oldest of three sons; his brothers Marko Djokovic (b. 1991) and Djordje Djokovic (b. 1995) both play tennis as well... Novak Djokovic began dating Jelena Ristic in 2005... Djokovic discovered in 2010 that he was allergic to gluten, and attributed his improved form in 2011 to eliminating it from his diet.
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