A Very Touching Book...for Little People and for Big People by Tom Novak

His showy personality and subtle game are a niche taste. He is dominant, but he is not universally adored. He once yelled-in Serbian-“Now you all will suck my dick!” He is an origami man, folding at the waist to dig up a drop shot, starfishing for a high forehand return, cocking his leg behind his head in an arabesque as he blasts a backhand down the line. He seems to flow toward the corners of the court. He bounces the ball a million times before he serves. He hasn’t lost before the semifinals of a Grand Slam in three years. In 2011, he played what some people think is the best season of tennis in history, winning seventy of the seventy-six matches he played and recording a forty-one-match winning streak. Open, and three Australian Opens straight. In addition to Wimbledon, he has won thirty-six other A.T.P. At one point, a rumor went around that he had bought up the country’s entire supply of donkey cheese.įor eighty-five weeks, he has been the No.

The President of Serbia told “60 Minutes” that he could win the nation’s highest office. After he won Wimbledon, in 2011, a hundred thousand people gathered to celebrate in front of Belgrade’s Parliament. He is Serbian, but he lives in Monte Carlo. He absolutely believes one hundred per cent in that kind of philosophy of life. The other night, after a match, he pulled an Afro wig out of his racket bag and danced to “Get Lucky.” A book he recently enjoyed was “The Secret,” by Rhonda Byrne. At an exhibition in Bratislava last year, he stuffed his shirt with sweat towels and hitched up an imaginary skirt.

A few years ago, he became famous for his imitations-Rafael Nadal picking at his wedgie, Roger Federer prancing swaybacked along the baseline. With his narrow neck and solid pelt of hair, he looks a bit like Pierre, his toy poodle. His legs, gummy and striated, bring to mind a pair of Twizzlers. He weighs a hundred and seventy-six pounds. He is an athlete, a professional tennis player. Djokovic’s sensibility recalled the soccer stadium rather than the country club, but he has become more courtly of late.

A Very Touching Book...for Little People and for Big People by Tom Novak