Novak Djokovic's wife told the day Nole wanted to retire from tennis

• Tennis News
• Novak Djokovic

His tenacity and mental strength have never been in question, but Novak Djokovic has also experienced difficult moments, in which he thought he couldn't do it. This was confirmed by his wife Jelena, who in a recent chat on TikTok with the American journalist Graham Bensinger, told how her husband almost abandoned his career after a crushing defeat against Benoit Paire in the second round of the ATP Masters 1000 in Miami , in 2018.

That year Djokovic underwent a minor surgery on his elbow, which had been hurting him for two years. In March he interrupted his collaboration with Andrè Agassi, due to differences of opinion on how to treat the injury.

The return to competition was not very easy. The Serbian champion suffered two defeats in the first rounds in Indian Wells and Miami. One against the French tennis player, which triggered many doubts in his head.

Jelena Djokovic's wife told the day Nole wanted to retire from tennis

Jelena told: "After that match, he wanted to quit.

He gathered all the members of his team and told them: You know what: I'm done, I'm quitting. We cried and told him that he couldn't do it, that it wasn't the right time He didn't want to play tennis and he didn't even want to see a ball pass in front of him.

He didn't want to know anything about it. But I love tennis and I take the kids to the court every day. On the third day Novak arrived. He saw that we were having fun and that it wasn't a workout like what he had been used to for years.

Novak asked me if he could play and get a racket, but I refused.

I started teasing him and told him that he had given up. That it was our turn to play tennis. In the end he served and said that he felt good, then he came back every day to finally call his coach Marian Vajda and ask him to resume training." Novak Djokovic's season so far has bordered on perfection.

The Serbian champion has won three of the four slams up for grabs this year, coming close to achieving the feat. The 24-time slam champion, who only missed the Wimbledon appointment, also regained first place in the world, to the detriment of Carlos Alcaraz.

The now well-established leadership of the Belgrade tennis player has been consolidated especially in the last 5 years, since which time he has won an impressive 12 majors.