Biography
The top-ranked player in men's singles tennis as of 2016, and arguably one of the best in the history of the sport, Novak Djokovic won numerous titles at nearly every major tennis tournament, including more than 10 Grand Slam singles, three Wimbledon titles and the Career Gland Slam, in less than two decades as a professional athlete. Born May 22, 1987 in Belgrade, SR Serbia, he was the eldest of three sons by Srdan and Dijana Djokovic; both of his younger brothers, Marko and Djordje, also pursued careers in professional tennis. He fell in love with the sport at the age of four and soon began his training; by his teenaged years, Djokovic was shuttling between his home in Serbia and training facilities in Germany to work with Jelena Gencic, who coached Monica Seles, among other tennis greats. At 14, he won the silver medal in team competition at the World Junior Championship, and was named European champion in the under-16 category the following year. Djokovic turned professional in 2003 and soon earned significant placement at both the 2005 Wimbledon and U.S. Open competitions. In 2006, he won his first Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) event by capturing the Dutch Open without losing a set, which minted him as the youngest professional in the ATP's Top 20 at the age of 20. He quickly advanced to the Top 10 with a win at the Masters Series in 2007, beating such top-ranked players as Rafael Nadal and later, Andy Roddick and Roger Federer at the Rogers Cup that same year. His first Grand Slam series titles came in 2008 with the defeat of Jo-Wilifried Tsonga in the finals of the Australian Open, with a bronze medal at the Summer Olympics coming later that same year. Ranked No. 2 by the ATP in 2010, he solidified his world-class standings by capturing 43 wins in a row the following year, culminating in a win against Tsonga at Wimbledon that year, which moved him up to the top of the ATP list. He carried the Serbian flag at the 2012 Summer Olympics, where he failed to secure his second bronze; a flurry of battles against Federer, Murray, Tsonga and David Ferrer briefly cost him his No. 1 ranking, but he regained it by besting Federer at the 2012 ATP World Tour Finals. After taking on former Wimbledon champ Boris Becker as his head coach in 2013, he would lose the top ranking that year to Nadal, but surpassed him the following year by defeating Federer in five sets. By 2015, Djokovic had collected eight Grand Slam trophies and became the first player to win five Australian Open titles, and added a third Wimbledon win, his second U.S. Open win and the first tennis player to win four consecutive end-of-year finals. He claimed his 60th tour-level trophy in Qatar in 2016, and in rapid succession, won the Australian Open, the Indian Wells and Miami Open tournaments and the French Open, among others, to become the third player in history to hold all four major titles at the same time.
