Novak Djokovic: how a kid from war-torn Belgrade beat the odds

(CNN) — Novak Djokovic was only 11 years old and asleep in his bed in Belgrade when a burst followed by the noise of shattering glass and air raid sirens woke him up.
It is March 24, 1999, and the air strikes the Serbian capital mark the start of what would be a 78-day effort by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) to try and bring to a finish atrocities committed by Yugoslavia’s then-president Slobodan Milosevic’s troops against ethnic Albanians in the province of Kosovo.
While his dad, Srdjan, helped his mother, Dijana, that briefly lost consciousness after hitting her head against the radiator after the explosion, Djokovic hunted within their pitch dark flat.
„At 11, I was the big brother,“ the top-ranked Serb wrote in“Serve to win,“ his 2013 autobiography. „I had been holding myself accountable for their security since NATO forces began bombing my hometown of Belgrade.“
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Remarkable journey
Two decades on, the today 32-year-old Djokovic is the favorite to win. Such was his dominance at the past calendar year, he’s clinched four of the previous five slams. 16 personalities, only two shy of Rafael Nadal of Spain are held by him, and four behind men’s Grand Slam record holder Roger Federer of Switzerland.
His trip by war-torn Belgrade on the top of the men’s match has been nothing short of remarkable.
In the introduction of his autobiography, Djokovic clarified how the odds were stacked against him.
„A boy , rising up in Serbia, becoming a tennis champion? It was not possible in the best of circumstances. Plus it became more improbable as soon as the bombs started dropping,“ he also wrote.
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Bomb shelter
In the very first chapter of his autobiography, titled“Backhands and Bomb Shelters,“ Djokovic vividly recalls the night that changed his life forever.
The Djokovic family entered the streets of Belgrade and attempted to create their way into the apartment construction of a uncle’s household, which was bomb shelter after Dijana recovered consciousness.
Djokovic suddenly found himself alone after he dropped flat on his face while the roads ran down, carrying his younger brothers.
„And then it occurred,“ Djokovic wrote. „Growing up from over the roof of the building came the steel grey triangle of an F-117 bomber.“
„What happened next would not abandon me,“ he said. „Even now, loud noises fill me with fear.“
The bomber fell on his head, which struck at a hospital creating a few streets away.
„I recall the temperate, temperate, metallic shell in the atmosphere, and the way the whole city seemed to shine like a ripe tangerine,“ Djokovic said in his book.
The roads now covered in mild, until they reached the concrete shelter 30, Djokovic seen his parents and brothers and chased after them.
There were approximately 20 families.
„There were children crying. I didn’t stop shivering for the rest of the nighttime,“ Djokovic said in his publication.
At a 2015 meeting with CNN television, Djokovic recalled the bombing effort, during which he and his family will spend every night in the shelter from 8 p.m., and only had electricity for a few hours every day.
„These days are certainly something that I do not wish for anybody to experience,“ he said. „Two-and-a-half months, each and every day and night, bombs coming to the city. We watched airplanes flying over our heads, also literally rockets and bombs landing half a mile away.“
‚Magic childhood‘
Until this dark spring night in 1999, Djokovic had enjoyed what he predicted into his autobiography, a“magic youth.“
His father Srdjan was a former skier and Djokovic first started playing tennis. No one in his family had played the game before.
Djokovic, who spent substantial parts of his childhood in the small Serbian mountain resort of Kopaonik, where his parents ran a pizza home, told CNN television in 2014:“It was kind of like a fate. Something just happened out of the blue pill. That the tennis court was seen by me when I was four, and I saw tennis on TV. My father bought me a small tennis racket and that is when I think all of us fell in love with the game.“
At age six, he had been spotted in Kopaonik by the late Serbian coach Jelena Gencic, who’d worked with Serbian-born former world No. 1 and nine-time key winner Monica Seles of the usa. Shortly after, Gencic advised his parents Djokovic had been“the best talent I’ve seen as Monica Seles.“
The pair would work together for five decades, during which her life lessons that are student were taught by Gencic. When he learned of her passing through the 2013 French Open djokovic was that he sacrificed his post-match press conference.
Different perspective
Although the bombing raids might have ended his tennis career, it put life in a perspective, Djokovic told CNN television in 2015.
„It gave me much more admiration for all of the values that I’ve in my life,“ he said. „From tennis to whatever. I understand what it feels like being without anything more or less, and then being at the top of the world in this popular and very global game on the planet. So this comparison gives me the perfect outlook in life“
Although Djokovic stated in his autobiography the constant bombing campaign, the largest military operation in NATO background, left him feeling“helpless, and“ it didn’t stop him enjoying tennis.
Djokovic stepped up his coaching sessions. He practised for as much as five hours each day across Belgrade picked by Gencic, based on where the most bombs had fallen.
Something shifted Djokovic said in his book as the strikes lasted from being paralyzed by panic initially.
„We made a decision to stop being afraid,“ he explained. „After so much death, so much destruction, we just stopped hiding. When you realize you’re truly helpless, a certain sense of freedom takes over.“
No. 1
After Milosevic agreed to troop withdrawals from Kosovo, on June 10, 1999, that the air strikes ended.
In September of this year, the today 12-year-old Djokovic left Serbia for Munich, Germanyto train in former Yugoslav expert Niki Pilic’s tennis academy. He’d turn pro .
Back in 1994the then seven-year-old Djokovic appeared on Serbian TV, confidently telling his interviewer:“The aim for me would be to become the world No. 1.“
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Seventeen years after, he became the first Serbian player to climb into the No. 1 position over the men’s ATP Tour after he won his first Wimbledon title.

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