At the age of 36, the Serbian Novak Djokovic has been the winningest player in tennis, achieving everything the sport has to offer. Looking back at his astonishing career, the father Srdjan Djokovic has stated his wish for his son to retire in 2024 in a documentary, which was released recently.
In 2023, the world number two in the ATP rankings, Novak Djokovic won the Australian Open and French Open, to become the first men’s player in the sport to reach a monumental feat of 23 Grand Slam titles. Despite a tough loss in the Wimbledon men’s singles final against the Spaniard Carlos Alcaraz in five gruelling sets, Novak Djokovic has been dominating the tennis scene for many years.
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While speaking on “Novak Djokovic - Untold Stories,” a documentary produced by Sportal, Srdjan Djokovic was quoted as saying, “As far as my wishes for him go, he has already fulfilled them all seven-eight years ago. The rest is this amazing bonus.”
“Tennis is only one segment of his life, not his whole life, I expect him to be recognized for the things he will do after his career ends as well, after he leaves the tennis world, which I hope it will happen next year,” opined the 62-year-old.
Srdjan Djokovic then talked about how difficult of a job it has become for his son to play professional tennis now while wishing for him to retire in the next year or so. He said, “And for Novak to slowly but surely… It’s not the end, but in a year-and-a-half let’s say… My wish as a father – I think for some time that he should have stopped working this extremely difficult job.”
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“It’s physically and mentally challenging and very demanding – with him being fully dedicated for 30 years, and not taking his foot off the gas, there is not much time for other things in life,” he added.
Meanwhile, the mother of the 36-year-old also shared her thoughts about the retirement prospect of her son in the documentary. Dijana Djokovic said, “It’s all up to him. As far as I’m concerned, he can retire right now – he has won everything.”
