The day Novak Djokovic wanted to quit tennis
Novak Djokovic was all set to quit tennis after his second round defeat to Benoit Paire at the 2018 Miami Masters.
Djokovic’s darkest day was revealed by wife, Jelena Djokovic, in a recent interview.
Jelena held a TikTok discussion with American journalist Graham Bensinger.
She said that injuries and a split with coach Andre Agassi had left him drained and sick of tennis.
“After that match, he wanted to quit,” Jelena Djokovic told Bensinger.
“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.”
Jelena did her bit to help Novak fall back in love with the sport as he watched her having fun with the kids on court.
“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.”
Djokovic would undergo surgery and return to playing pain-free but it seemed the break also refocused him and he has played some of his best tennis since.
“With injury and everything that was happening the past couple months, the post-surgery period, me trying to come back to Indian Wells and Miami, and obviously playing well below the desired level, it wasn’t that easy for me to cope with all of that. At the same time it made me I think even more inspired to come back and try to play the way I played today,” Djokovic said after he made a winning return to the ATP Tour at the 2018 Monte Carlo Masters.
Djokovic has gone on to add another 12 Grand Slam titles since the day that he seriously contemplated retirement and become the standalone leader in terms of Major wins in men’s singles.
READ MORE: Top analyst names Novak Djokovic ‘main favourite’ as he discusses 10 Australian Open contenders
