Novak Djokovic: My mind, insane diet, doctor and forgiveness

0:00 [Music] so i wanted to start by taking you back to 2007. at the time you're third in the world next year you win your first grand slam but no matter what you tried i believe at the time whether that's lifting weights biking for hours changing coaches i think you underwent nasal surgery to improve breathing fast forward to the 2010 australian open which i think was one of the lowest points of your career at the time tell me about a doctor that

0:32 was watching that tournament on television that changed everything for you yes his name is igor chetoevich and for some reason in australia in particular i was always struggling very early in my career with the respiratory issues uh kind of mild the version of asthma and just suffocation during the night for many years since i was seven years old and for some reason you know as the time was passing by all

1:03 these allergies were gaining more i guess intensity in terms of the reaction i felt that it was just getting stronger and stronger and the place where i felt it the most was always a tennis court and that's where you know emotions kick in expectations pressure and when you mix it all together you get formula that is causing you to uh to really experiencing experience some some major health problems and issues on the court and and because of it i i was retiring

1:35 matches and i was uh it took me a lot of time to recover so dr igor reached out to people that we have some friends in common and they reached out to my parents and you know when i met him i did couple of sessions and i and i and i uh you know felt really a big difference um that's that was the first time that i got introduced to the quantum uh quantum physics the quantum field

2:06 world to the biofeedback he had a all this analysis and overview of of my emotional body of my mental body my physical body on all the food allergies and everything that i was experiencing and so we started slowly uh taking off layer by layer and really going uh going deep into into things that are related to my health and trying to understand what is the core of it so of course diet was one of the most

2:37 integral uh part of the problem and and changing the diet was uh something that allowed me to get rid of the allergies and everything particularly gluten and dairy that i removed from my diet and refined sugar and so it was it was a change but i was very determined because i i could feel instantly right after the first session second session with him i could i could sense that there is an improvement family was initially concerned when you

3:07 were losing right yes yes they um they were initially concerned um and i was actually slightly started you know starting to get rid of the red meat as well because i felt like i had also um i had to put a lot of energy and effort into digestive process to to digest the meat so and and that would take a lot of essential energy that i need for you know for my focus for the recovery for the next training session or for the

3:36 next match that was the the the initial point of the journey that got me to the point where i am at the moment where i'm eating plant-based you know i'm not eating any animal products so it was a really interesting journey that started when when you mentioned in 2010 what do you eat in an average day today uh well i i start off always um when i when i rise from the bed i start with warm water and lemon so i can help my

4:06 body detoxify and then i would have celery juice on an empty stomach and then i would make a break and then i would have my my smoothie and green smoothie with different algae and and different fruits and superfoods great supplements that i use that uh allow me to have mental clarity you know feeling good uh longevity i guess and and and

4:36 different benefits on on health and i eat a lot of fruits um for the first part of the day salads i don't like to eat any food that would require much of a much energy for digestion especially in the first part of the day because that's when i need the most energy for my training so i'm keeping things quite light and i would have probably like you know soda grains like quinoa and millet and

5:06 wild rice sweet potato and normal potato like steamed or boiled you were coached by the famed coach gensek by six you're already thinking you can be number one in the world why so i fell in love with it when i was when i was four and you know my dad bought me a tennis record and they were making three tennis courts and from the restaurant which were run by my parents uh back in mountain resort here in serbia

5:36 and we used to spend a lot of time there and me my dad my uncle and my aunt they were all competitive skiers and my father used to play soccer as well and my mom graduated in the university of sports so there is an athletic gene in in the family that runs and um so it's no accident that i ended up playing sport but it is a little bit odd that i started playing tennis which was quite unknown in my family but i

6:06 think it was a sign of a destiny three tennis courts being built when i started watching tennis on the tv it was a wimbledon finals and the ellen against showed up very very soon after that with her camps and my my parents i'm very grateful that they um you know first of all uh supported me and and my wish to to play tennis as a as a kid how long did they hide from you the sacrifices that they had to make so

6:36 you could pursue your dreams for a long time they did hide and they succeeded in hiding a lot of things that that made them suffer and that they had to sacrifice in order for me to you know pursue my love for the for tennis my love for for sport and but there were certain things that i i just they could not hide from me i could i could clearly see i remembered that at one

7:08 point my dad took out a 10 deutsche mark bill and put it on the table and he said this is all we got you know which is equivalent to ten dollars nowadays maybe even less because at that time it was really not about tennis it was more about us surviving his family and having bread to eat during the day and um but somehow you know my parents found a way and they were a great team because my mom

7:38 she was and she still is a pillar of the family she's that stability she holds everybody together and she's incredibly strong woman truly an inspiring woman that has had to handle four men in in a very small apartment with all our different needs and activities and she did everything a a a one woman could could possibly do and she was

8:08 preparing breakfast lunch dinner cleaning washing ironing picking up at school bringing to school she was i mean superwoman literally and and my dad on the other hand he was he was the one that was providing and he was the the one that was also a visionary but at that time where you had a dollar of 10 deutsche marks on the table for the whole family of five you know it took a lot of a lot of guts to

8:36 really um stick with the with with the the vision of supporting me to become a successful professional tennis player he still is in in my life as someone that uh that finds always strength when you need it the most and that's why i i think also i've where i inherited that that trait on the court when i when i need to somehow find a way and find that strength i think that's the dad in me how much

9:07 consideration did you and your brothers give to switching nationalities uh and playing for england back in the day when finances were really tight well fortunately for us i i uh was doing really well uh in the international tournaments under 12 and under 14 years of age and so i got spotted by tennis agents you know traveling around in this these

9:39 junior events and um and then we got offered to um to switch the nationalities to british nationality when i was i think 14 years old and it was it was very tempting at that time for for my for my parents very very tempting because of the solved problems yeah exactly my family my parents would get a job my family would have a house i mean it was a great great deal i'm not saying that it would particularly be wrong if we did

10:11 that who knows where the journey would take us but i think life has just arranged things and organized things in such way that it was had to be that way what do you remember from the conversation where you guys as a family ultimately decided to turn it down well it was mostly the decision of my parents to be honest you know yes i was of course included and involved in the conversations and i was i i did

10:40 i personally didn't feel it from the beginning i just i i said listen i don't want to i don't want to go and live in england but i don't know anybody i want to stay here with my friends i have my school i have my friends i have my life i have my country i have my language i have everything here i just didn't feel that i would i would feel happiest there but i understood that it was a decision

11:03 that my parents had to take because it was uh it was not only about i guess how you feel somewhere but it's just whether we can survive his family and and something had to be sacrificed so if if if i wanted to pursue the tennis career then then then they had to strongly take in consideration moving to to london but um dad and mom you know made that risk turned down the offer and we stayed here

11:33 what was the tournament or match where you felt like you really arrived uh it's a good question i i think it's it was probably when wimbledon was always very special tournament and it was always a dream tournament for me when i was a kid i always wanted to win wimbledon the first top 100 breakthrough that i had was there i qualified and i saved i think two or three match points in the last round of qualifications one of the main

12:04 motivations that i had and driving forces that i had in that match particularly was my my brothers joining me in london because uh if they were to come i had to qualify and uh i won three rounds and got to the fourth round in wimbledon and qualified for top hundred and that's where i really felt okay now i entered the elite arena of professional tennis i wanted to talk to you about clutch moments when you're in those

12:35 situations how do you avoid distractions uh consciously breathing first that's that's probably the the simplest thing that you could do but probably the most effective i think the experience of being in this particular situation so many times before in my career helps me every next time that i have to face the adversity and face the distractions and you know my thoughts and what ifs and fears and and so forth i think everyone

13:08 goes through that thought process it's just um and and i don't think it's particularly bad i was thinking it's it's bad so i was trying to um ignore it or i was trying to shut it down but i think the major transformation in a positive way for me started when i acknowledged was starting to acknowledge it and and accept it as as part of me it's it's it's there my ego is there my fears are there everything

13:34 is there it's present but then how will i address it in a way that is going to help me to overcome that to transform it into positive fuel that is going to help me overcome the clutch moments that you talked about um just feel happy and joyful and present on the court and get the best out of that experience how do you do it well i i practice a lot of mindfulness so you know meditation

14:06 you know journaling talking with my team with my parents with my wife with everybody who is around me trying to address certain um with my of course life coaches that i have spiritual guides and that i have as well that help me um address certain emotional you know uh issues or traumas or whatever it is that that that uh tend to appear

14:36 on the court so when it appears on a break point when i'm facing a match point or break point or you know clutch moments uh they do tend to surface but they are they uh i i managed to to to gain the control over them much quicker and i managed to to impose my positive affirmation and positive feeling or if that doesn't happen then i just try to be conscious that i have to accept that moment that that's going to happen but i

15:07 focus on my breathing and i focus on being in the moment and and what needs to be done next moment which is playing the right shot positioning myself well on the chord and just focusing on executing the point right and and that's easy much easier said than it's done and and i think anyone who plays the sport in the highest level will understand that it just takes years of uh devoted practice mentally not just physically and you

15:39 have to do it you can't expect others to really fix your emotional or mental issues they can encourage you and they can empower you and they can understand you and they can give you tools but you have to use those tools and do it the right way the olympics uh how tough in the rio olympics was getting eliminated in the first round

16:10 that was one of the most heartbreaking moments i had in my my career really yes um because i i built the with myself a huge expectation for the olympic games in rio i was uh number one the world i won four slams in a row i had it was a peak of my career in terms of results in terms of how i play how i feel i felt if there was ever a time for me to get

16:39 the gold medal or fight for a gold medal it was now but because i guess i got injured also because i i built such a huge pressure and expectation of myself i just it was just unbearable i i was it was too much and and i i at the time i just uh wasn't aware how to how to handle it in a proper way and and i got injured and had to um

17:10 you know i lost the first round match because del potro went on to to win a silver medal and i still managed to play tight match you know two tie breaks but it was it was just very heartbreaking because uh olympics is obviously uh uh a biggest and most important sports manifestation in the history of sports and representing my country in in such event is a huge honor and privilege and four years later i have

17:40 i think more experience mentally emotionally how to approach that so i will make certain changes and corrections to my preparation prior to tokyo and to how i go about things while i'm there um because i want to treat it as any other tournament because in the past i was treating is something completely different which essentially it is but i think in order for me to really get the best outcome which would ideally be

18:11 fighting for a medal i need to treat it as any other big tournament that i play individually to what extent do you feel you get the credit that you deserve um interesting question i honestly don't really think about that so much and i or at least i'm not do i'm not thinking about it as much as i used to i i actually don't feel

18:43 that i don't ha don't have as much love from the crowds in the stadiums or for people around the world as much as maybe it's portrayed in the media in contrary i actually do feel a lot of love acceptance and and appreciation and respect most of all and um respect for me is uh is a very important element of love which is the ultimate energy and the source that drives us all so

19:13 if i have if someone has respect to me and and i i i you know of course i'll have respect to him and it's other way around i have respect also for someone that doesn't think so fondly of me or doesn't like me um whatever it is and that's okay i'm really trying to focus most constructively all my life force and energy into into really be being the best person i could possibly be really and of

19:43 course uh it is different when you're playing on a big stadium and then most of the stadium is chewing your name or mostly stadiums cheering your opponent's name i mean you said uh when everybody's chanting roger federer's name as example you've actually trained yourself to think as if everybody's chanting you're getting explain that well uh it's not much to explain it's really just a mechanism i guess it's just uh it's just

20:15 you you know your reality or your experience in external life or whatever happens it's just the reflection i believe reflection of what's going on inside of you so it might sound weird it's probably is weird for for a lot of people because obviously for everyone everyone is saying roger roger rafa whatever it is but and i hear that too part of me hears that too of course but part of me inside says okay i'm not

20:46 gonna let that you know bring you down or um you know because of it you might lose a tennis match or you're gonna feel bad or you're gonna feel angry or upset but i'm gonna help you feel better and and so i try to transform that into something that is useful for me um in what ways do you think the three of you have pushed one another to be better meaning you raphael yes well we still do

21:16 i think we still push each other we still uh drive each other to um to be the best we could possibly be on the with the tennis racket on the court um roger has inspired me in many ways as a raphael as well i mean uh roger has has particularly showed not just me but all the generation after him and you know how efficiently and smartly you can train and organize your private life

21:48 professional life in order to thrive in order to be your best self in order to be a champion how to you know carry yourself on the court with dignity and everything and and uh rafa on the other hand you know taught me how to have this never die never give up spirit uh this this kind of respect for for you know the sport for your opponents so i did learn a lot of things from them and i'm openly saying that even though

22:16 they're my two biggest opponents i i try to you know always tell myself be open-minded be open-hearted for for learning from anybody it doesn't need to be rafa and roger only might be any you know someone that is ranked outside of top hundred i feel like uh life is a continuous learning journey how true is it that you and rafa were close friends until you started beating him well we look uh yeah we have to define what close

22:47 friends mean so it's really not we were never really so close as i would be close with you know my childhood friends or he would be with his friends it's just it's very hard you know because you know your main rivals you're both fighting for something that only one can get you know what i mean and and um but we always had respect for each other because i think we are we are all aware of how

23:13 many kids look at us and look what we do what we say how we behave towards each other towards the sport towards other people and the example that we give is something that is very important to all of us how confident are you that when it's all said and done you'll have the career grand slam record uh i i'm always very confident in myself i think that uh

23:44 confidence is derived from self-belief self-belief is derived from um i guess uh clarity that you have and and clarity that you have is derived from uh the love and joy for what you do what you choose to do in your life of course there are things that have to be sacrificed unfortunately i wish to spend more time with my family with my kids sometimes i have to leave them for a month or something like that and that's

24:12 that's really hard but at the same time i'm very grateful that i have you know closest people in my life that still support me on this on this great mission and understand that uh that that's the journey that has chose me i honestly i i do believe that also journey chooses you not not just the other way around so i think that i still have things to do here in the sport

24:43 and i believe i can i can um win most slams and and and uh break the record for the longest number one and i believe those are those are definitely my clear goals um but at the same time they're not the only thing that motivates me um on a daily basis i it's not it's not sustainable it's not it doesn't fuel me every day what fuels me every day is something that is more related to my

25:14 growth personally what's the likelihood you're still playing at 40 uh um look i don't have i don't believe in limits i think limits are only illusion of your your ego or your mind i definitely want to go for a long time but i i know that at the same time i'll have to you know maintain the right principles in the routine for

25:46 to maintain the health and well-being of my body mind soul and everything has to work in synergy and in harmony with my family my life private life i'm aware that the the tempo and the amount of tournaments that i'm playing is going to decrease very soon so i i will not be able to play on this intensity with this many tournaments and this much traveling uh for a long time so i might be playing

26:17 at 40 uh but there will probably be then just focusing on you know biggest tournaments and tournaments that mean the most to me we're obviously sitting right now at your like grandfather's apartment here in belgrade you've lived through two wars the latter of which being uh 1999 when uh you know nato uh you know starts bombing serbia last 78 days

26:50 you and your family were living on a second floor apartment at the time yes what do you remember seeing what do you remember hearing well first of all uh i i'm sorry we don't have an apple here because uh when i walked into this apartment i was talking with with my wife about that we're remembering the um the time of of uh our visits here as a couple as well and me coming to to see visit my grandfather

27:19 one of the most profound memories would be him cutting an apple in front of me and he that's that was a that was his thing regardless of what is happening in the world he would come with his knife and with his apple and just cut it in a particular way that i still that i still use today i use his technique even though it's dangerous for my for my fingers but i do it anyway because it's just it's it's a very

27:43 uh fond memory of him and this is the apartment where uh where where as i said at the beginning i used to spend a lot of time uh with my brothers with my family with my parents uh with my aunt and her family so it was a lot of people particularly in 99 when when we had bombings as you mentioned we did live in the apartment that is a about 500 feet away from here we would

28:12 come always to to this apartment and always to this building uh every single night for god knows how many nights but but particularly 15 20 nights uh of bombing because our building did not have a shelter so this building had a shelter underground shelter so it was just uh a horrifying experience uh for everyone uh particularly for children that were you know we did not really realize what is happening you know why is why why are

28:43 the planes flying over our city and dropping bombs like i mean who does that and but at the same time it's unfortunate to say that but after a month we just really stopped reacting to it i mean i remember i i was celebrating my 12th birthday party at the tennis club partisan where i where i grew up and you know during the happy birthday song there was a plane just flying flying over you know you can't really

29:14 comprehend how horrifying and scary that experience is and how helpless you are i mean you're here on the ground and someone is flying over and just dropping bomb in a second and just disappearing what about when you're outside one time and you slip oh yeah that was the first i think it was the first or second night or something like that of bombing and so we were just about to fall asleep again and then a huge explosion happened

29:44 and then my mom she stood up very quickly and she hit the heaters and with her head and she felt unconscious and so it was us crying because of the bombs and us crying because mom is not reacting and my dad is there and just you know what is happening you know and so luckily my dad manages to to help my mom get back to to to herself normal as much as she could and we collect our stuff quickly and

30:14 just take uh the necessities and we go out there was no snow street lights everything was shut off and and um and i and and and it was so loud that we could not hear each other we were very close to each other but we we could not even if you scream they don't hear you my dad was carrying my my my brothers and my mom was running with stuff and then i slipped and i fell and as i turn

30:36 around i look towards the building and i see this you know stealth plane just flying and just dropping things and and then the ground is shaking and then of course that's that's one of the most traumatic experience and images that i had in my childhood that stayed with me till this day and we were lucky i think uh our family families that we did not lose anybody that is very close to us there are a lot of people that lost very

31:04 close people in their lives and that's that's a different level of suffering and different level of trauma i mean i i can't even imagine the pain that i had to bear to to go through that there was a quote that you gave that they thought was interesting that where you said you can carry the hatred the revenge the betrayal the feeling of anger towards those who did that to you to your people to your country but you can also use them as a tool to

31:33 make you believe to make you stronger that's what i've learned to do how so yes it's interesting i i think i remember saying that and at that time i was still i was still upset i was still angry and but i use that in a way that fuels me to [Music] be successful in tennis and uh but that changed i i don't i really don't have this emotion anymore i when i say i i don't you will not forget i will

32:03 not forget and a lot of people will never forget what happened but at the same time i don't think it's good for anybody to be stuck in the emotion of hatred and emotion of anger rage because someone destroyed your home and people and killed your close one i mean i can only imagine you know again the amount of pain that you feel when you lose your close one you know how it is possible that uh that

32:30 you know big countries come together and bomb a small country with helpless people on the street and and just destroy everything i just i couldn't understand that there is no justification for war there is no justification for bombing for killing somebody for taking away the home i mean this is you know an ultimate cruelty you know and that has made me and

33:01 everybody in serbia very angry um and the scars of this of of these emotions of this anger still are today present in everybody but i worked on myself i must say and all those emotions to forgive because you need to forgive finally uh how can you be fueled more by anything but by love and love is forgiveness and and and

33:33 that's my philosophy of life and as hard as it it might be you know but at the end of the day you you can and i think you should forgive because you have to move on you know if you're stuck in that emotion what you know what are you going to make out of your life i mean it's always going to hold you back it's always going to hold you down not just professionally but privately emotionally you know it's hard it's

33:59 really hard there's these people in in serbia have suffered a lot you know in the last 100 years in the first world war over 1 million serbian people died you know and uh but look that's that's a kind of a destiny i guess that we as people have here in this in this region but i still believe that that can make us stronger i really appreciate everything that i experienced in life

34:31 because i know that those particularly those times have made me so so resilient and so strong but also so appreciative of everything that i have in life today you said your greatest achievement is your open mind what because you need to have open mind in order to forgive in order to move on i mean if you if you have a closed mind i mean it's really hard to learn anything believe in love believe in this universal force that that binds us

35:02 together that unites us all and when you open your heart and when you open your mind then you are you know more prone to improve and love and bring people closer and understand i think most of the conflicts in wars that happen today is because there is no understanding of really like there's a lot of religious wars in the history of humankind because there's no understanding it's because i'm better than you and you know my god is better than your god or

35:31 whatever it is it's like you know i i don't think that's the future that that we want for our humankind on this planet where are we so we're in the shelter under um under the the apartment where we just talked this is where we spent every single night for at least 14 15 nights of bombings

36:02 and it's crazy when you think about the amount of people that had to come here in the shelter and hide from the danger that was coming from from the air and yeah this definitely stayed the same as it was 20 years ago how many people would be in here yeah i mean i i'm just trying to think about it but i mean the whole building

36:32 which has you know who knows over 50 apartments would be here with all the families children everybody so you know there's not so much space i mean there's you know places like this like little tunnels where people would or people wouldn't even go inside actually here you would close this door so that any possible fire or i don't know detonation or anything like that explosion would uh not harm you and it everything is basically inside

37:04 there i mean all the little i guess corners where people would just uh hide and look for a place safe place you know what do you remember doing when you were down here i mean it all looks so different now i mean it's i haven't been here i've been here probably about um you know seven eight years ago the last time just and i had a sneak peek but i i don't i don't literally i don't

37:35 remember any of this i don't remember i was i was so tiny i was so small so and i was in full fear and uh just unsafe and just feeling disturbed emotionally and uh unaware of what what the next moment brings to me personally to my brothers to my family um but and there were there was i remember there was uh in the first couple of days there was

38:06 there was a lot of fear uh present here and a lot of trembling a lot of tears a lot of suffering and and then i think after about five six days people started uh singing playing cards and just accepting that that's the reality that they have to face so accepting that they're gonna have to come every night into this shelter and pray that everything will be fine

38:38 and while being here you can you might as well you know just enjoying the positivity right now we are coming into the um the playground area where we used to spend a lot of time and and you might want to check that out uh that's our grandpa that's uh me in the middle and jelena gentrich on the left and um coach it was it's basically made just under

39:09 the apartment where uh where we just did it that's grandpa's apartment right there first floor so yeah it's beautiful really really nice and we should introduce you yes brother my brother jolly the uh was handsome of the three brothers as well as you're absolutely the close friend and best man yes best man and best friend nevin who actually also grew up in this

39:39 building and his apartment is just on the opposite end with the same same floor so there they were the first neighbors actually we met when we were what twelve twelve twelve years old twelve years it was about the time of the the war there were bombings actually we used to spend time in shelters a lot that's that's how we connect so how about the most trouble this guy got into growing up the best story each of you guys have

40:06 we don't we don't have we don't have that much time but uh we used to we used to we we all used to play here and this in the street uh the playground right here uh little football soccer uh pitch here and uh basketball uh hide and seek uh every possible outdoor social game that you can think of we we played it game sport whatever i remember

40:38 falling down on my knees so many times in this in this football pitch here i mean football court so many times i don't know how my knees stayed you know healthy you should just come here with whatever sport you we would like to play and just invent find an empty spot yeah we were improvising with everything right and uh we would use we would use walls of this building our building here i mean no one no one

41:09 would be complaining uh because you know the best thing you want to see as an adult as a parent especially is kids being outside playing with the ball i mean unless we really start breaking windows then then that would be an issue because that happened as well especially this these two windows i think i broke them twice each you did yeah with tennis balls with the football with basketball you get in trouble yeah of course well we would get in trouble uh big time

41:41 but then we would run you know because it's big area so we would not come back for a few hours maybe maybe i can i can hit the few bulls here sure that feels nice [Music]

42:12 uh does it uh bring back memphis oh my gosh it feels so good honestly it does it does it's just like i mean it feels completely different now but it just it makes me feel so happy and that's something i i really i really you know would take take away as as as you know the highlight of my childhood is always spending time outdoors playing sports socializing and that's what i wish to see actually a

42:44 little bit more with generation nowadays first uh school school yes let's let's hit the road we're uh in front of the primary school borostankwich where uh we all went we all went to the school so uh it's very close to where we live we used to spend a lot of time obviously here in this outdoor area as well playing around sitting as we were going going growing older

43:15 uh we were less fooling around there but more kind of like being cool and sitting on these steps and just observing uh the younger crowd so did he pick on you a lot growing up um yeah actually not as much as yeah i got yeah i got picked yeah by marco quite a bit not that much because you know when when i was growing up he was traveling quite a bit and we didn't have enough time to

43:42 bond and for him to pick up on me so much so um yeah um i get i guess now is the time actually no i'm not i'm not brave enough because you know he's he's stronger than me now physically so i'm you know i'm i'm just admiring my brother rather than picking up on him how about your greatest weakness

44:13 my greatest weakness my greatest weakness is um and greater strength at the same time is ability or inability to [Music] comprehend things on a deeper level um to be more concrete um i feel i i'm at my best when i understand

44:44 that the power comes from within and that i can change everything inside whatever is happening outside whether it's tennis court whether it's relationship with my closest ones whether it's whatever it is i can solve it inside because i can change the vibration and frequency that i'm resonating on and then the reality changes vulnerabilities is beautiful thing because when you're vulnerable then you are emotional then you're freed and you're you know you're kind you're loving so vulnerability is beautiful to show

45:13 especially for men i see men a lot of a lot of times they don't show their vulnerability because in in especially particularly in sports you know because you have to be macho you have to be strong and everything but i think you know that shows me my the still the weaknesses that i have and and and the the path that is still ongoing and that will probably never stop a path of self realization of of self development and growth

45:45 self-love finally but you know it takes it takes a lot of effort you know every day you just i try to be conscious of that how did you propose she thought we're going hiking or something like this but we went for a hot air balloon ride and i arranged another hot air balloon in the distance that when we are coming closer to it so it rises and then it releases a huge banner sign will you marry me i say are

46:12 we meant to meet another hot air balloon on our way and he goes like no this is awkward what's happening the guy who was piloting the air balloon was trying to detach and undo the sign that was supposed to be released when he finally manages to unwrap it he burns the balloon so there was a panic so the balloon started going down and she was like oh my god there is a hole in a balloon i turn around to the

46:37 pilot i'm like please can you help me do something we're missing an opportunity the window is coming closer right and then the thing falls down and it says and i'm reading it slowly because it's letter up you know and i'm like will you marry me but i'm like it's a commercial is he crazy at 7am why would he want to put a commercial out she was thinking someone is doing a commercial ban it's not a commercial oh my god and he's

47:02 already down on me i'm like oh come on she keeps on telling me she knows me so well that i can't surprise her but i'm really really glad that i managed to surprise her that time when when i needed to children uh do you have two one anymore uh tough question i am really happy with that with our two children at the moment um i'm going to give you a very political question

47:33 answer here uh we're as couple fine for now but i'm just gonna say for now okay yeah so that that's not to say there couldn't be uh more kids you never know life is uh life is full of wonderful surprises and and we are so blessed to be parents of two angels that uh are our teachers uh they teach us how to how to stay in the moment how to be present how to be joyful and playful they awaken our inner

48:05 inner children that we've abandoned for years so who's more interested in having more kids you or the wife i am how many how many people come on man don't put me on the spot how did uh how did having kids uh kind of change it just kind of upend your life well i mean i when i when i became a father i really never knew how much more i can love and and the dimension of emotion and

48:38 love that that i experienced uh that day when stefan um came to us it was just inexplicable and and uh uncomparable to anything else that i have personally experienced achieved uh in my in my life and i'm sure yelena will say the same and agree i mean um anybody who is a parent understands the

49:09 amount of love and support and dedication unconditional love that you feel towards your your child um and the responsibility and you're just your life just completely shifts and turns around upside down how do you think you'll go about finding a balance between all the opportunities that your success has created for your kids

49:39 with not wanting to dampen motivation because obviously they'll be growing up in much different circumstances circumstances there are pros and cons of that of course the pros that they will not have the heartache and the challenges and obstacles that we had financially economically obviously but at the same time uh they will have to experience i think a much greater emotional challenges i think and and in their upbringing mentally to be

50:10 regarded as the son or the daughter of and and their journey of um self-growth is going to be i think uh really demanding my daughter tara she's obviously still she's two or just over two years old and still very young doesn't realize what is happening in tennis and who is who and what is happening you know she knows i go to play tennis and she knows just knows that i hold the record and i go with the

50:39 bag and i play and i come back and i put her to bed that's all uh and and my boy he already starting to realize what's going on he went to see me play in wimbledon a couple of other tournaments now in dubai recently as well for a metro two and he's starting to to understand um he's very smart boy and very mature for his age uh and he's handling it very well that's something that is that that there is

51:07 going to be a task of all of us i think to create circumstances where they can and and conditions in life in which they can thrive to be the best versions of human beings that they possibly can and whatever they choose to do in life whether it's tennis sport arts whatever whatever they choose in life we will be there to to really support them all the way as any parent would do for a two-year period starting in july

51:36 2014 you win 158 matches only 13 losses six majors four consecutive which is as dominant a period as anybody's ever had in the the history of the sport um and you win the the french open in uh june 2016 which i guess is the the one major that had eluded you and you said at that point you just kind of lost your mojo um yeah

52:06 why were you wondering if you'd ever be able to get back to the the place that you were at playing wise i was quite convinced that everything will be fine and after that i'll keep on going and keep on you know dominating the tenants tennis world winning matches and then i realized that it's not really like that and then i realized that i came to the stage of my life and my career where i had to

52:36 uh dig deeper and understand myself on a much deeper levels than than what i have had till that point and um i've put a lot of weight in my life and people around me in their lives on winning the french open and completing the four slams but i think i probably put way too much weight on that meaning

53:07 the happiness would be dependent on me winning or not and then i realized that when i won i of course i was happy i was achieved something that i wanted to achieve for so many years but i was not fulfilled fully something was lacking it was some dark place where there was some little child hidden in the corner crying and asking for attention

53:38 but not in a way through achievements but in a way through you know emotions through to um i guess other ways of communication how so um well i realized that uh because of my devotion to tennis and because of the way that got me to achieve those things up to up to that point um

54:10 i left that inner child aside and and i i didn't it didn't grow with me and in other words i did not dedicate enough time and proper way of addressing and treating myself on an emotional level so i didn't grow up emotionally as much as i did tennis wise and and that's when i started addressing that a bit more and and then i i had to

54:41 um endure through that journey and then my tennis results were suffering more after that i got i got injured as well and i'm super glad that i've done that i just focus on on on appreciating and understanding and accepting that something happened and it happened for a reason i am a more mature more grown person inside i am i'm i'm i'm i think more enabled to deal with my emotions

55:12 and deal with everything that life you know has to throw at me well it's interesting because as i mentioned i was listening to one of the podcast interviews you gave where you alluded to around the same time you were going through marital challenges yes um what do you think you learned about yourself having gone through that well i learned that um when you expect the least that's when

55:44 you know life will give you something to work at internally i really feel my relationship became deeper more significant more intrinsic and i realized actually up to that moment that the relationship within some of the closest people in my life were quite superficial and shallow because i just didn't know how to handle that what did it teach you about your wife what did it teach me about my wife

56:16 where it taught me that we have to go on this journey together and that she it's inevitable that she has to endure the same journey as i do at the same time otherwise we can't stay together and uh and and i'm really grateful and happy that uh she embarked on the same journey her own journey but partly at the same time as i did we were talking about wanting to talk about charity and your

56:47 book serve to win that you wrote many years back there's a winston churchill quote in the book that says we make a living by what we get but we make a life by what we give yeah um i know you've been thinking a lot about how you can use your platform to create social change yeah in what ways well um i've said a little while ago that tennis has allowed me to have a stage

57:17 in which i can uh communicate with the youth particularly that i'm kind of focused on and also through our foundation here in serbia and motivate them to be the best they can possibly be to believe in themselves to believe in their dreams to believe anything is possible and um that's that's something that is very dear and very important to me i feel there is a much greater mission uh in life than uh in tennis than just

57:48 winning a tennis trophy why uh did you decide through your foundation to focus on early childhood development well um before where we we founded the the foundation in 2007 i enjoyed my parents novak fund yes exactly and uh for for three four years we were helping everywhere i mean we were trying to help we were

58:18 you know funding churches schools uh the people with different ailments tough to track progress just exactly and we were all over the place and and then unicef actually provided us staggering data that there was over 50 of children not attending any preschool programs and then we we wondered why and it was partly financial reasons partly culturally because you know culture you know it's parents think it's much better for a child to be

58:49 growing up next to their grandparents and family rather than being in in the kindergarten and uh so that so then we we said okay this is what we want to do you know because uh there's an obvious uh misconception of what kindergarten represents and what early childhood development is and what it what it means for for humans life and then we we back that up

59:20 with the scientific evidence that says you know from from zero to seven years is the vastest growth of the human brain so little by little now almost 10 years later we you know we almost opened i think almost 50 and renovated 50 kindergartens we have over 20 almost 25 000 children in the program so they play they draw together and they learn together new things the socialization is

59:52 so important the kids have to you know interact with other children and to learn to share to learn to see the differences and appreciate the differences rather than judge and overcome obstacles and work as a team another aspect of our work is that we work with parents as well so we have the project called uh support not perfection for parents such as i was you know that want to be perfect they want to do everything perfect for their child and

60:20 then they realize that's not what your child needs you know your child doesn't have to have a perfect parent it needs to have a supportive parent the level of appreciation is really high uh the parents that that go through through the whole program so the the 10 workshops included they really report significant significant progress with respect to to their approach i would say to to them to their children and to parenting in

60:51 general i'm really proud of the foundation's team as young people who are very motivated and very inspired they know they're part of something that is much larger than all of us and it's affecting education and children's lives and and and by consequence of that it's affecting the future of our country the phd program with the university of belgrade how did that come about

61:22 it's not just about us uh giving to the communities and opening kid their gardens it's also about as i said raising awareness and you can't raise awareness without the data and we need people who actually recognize the importance of digging deep in all this and learning more about children and their needs and how do you raise a conscious adult tomorrow to be the leader of the society i'm very grateful and i feel as a part of a big

61:52 family and that's why i emphasize that working together i do do believe pyramid firmly believe that she's that he's sparked something in us he sparked the change and i think that we feel that and we have the need to spark that change in other people what's been the biggest challenge or some of the biggest challenges in

62:22 building the foundation the biggest problem is that in our country it's not as developed as in america for instance we still have to pay uh taxes on the donations you know which is strange um so even if somebody donates we still have to give a portion of funds to the you know country which is strange because we give everything to the country you know when you do philanthropy that's all you do you help the country so have they haven't yet recognized that

62:54 your long-term goals with the foundation would be what well we are hoping we can have every single child in serbia in the future attending one of the early childhood development programs and that's it is a big goal because 51 or 2 children were not attending any early childhood programs um in 2011 now we're 2020 and that has

63:24 changed but it's still a very long way and i think we you know we we would like to probably go even go out from serbia and and start helping also other countries in the region and maybe in the world but uh right now we're focused here before you found success how did you find smart ways to save money financially well you learn

63:56 from your parents obviously i mean they they teach you about uh you know some fundamental things in life they made us realize you know how important is to have the the awareness about what you you know how you spend how you save but i think also the circumstances in which we grew up uh going back to the situation where my dad put 10 deutsche marks on the table you know that's all you had so i think also those

64:26 circumstances in the environment taught us big lessons about money and money being something that you have to value with respect because you have to earn it you have to work hard for it and when you do it doesn't belong to you you know it's just the mean that goes through and it allows you to live a nicer life but it does not give you happiness it does not go you give you joy that's something completely

64:56 different in monaco yeah you aren't the center of attention yeah which also has to be nice changing exactly exactly exactly exactly i mean i i'm not looking to be the center of attention i also when i'm here but i understand that people you know obviously follow tennis and follow my results and and my tournaments and they they cheer for me they give me support and i feel the love and for me that's that's the focus and i don't perceive

65:26 myself as a big star i don't try to act like that i try to be friendly and kind to everybody on the street and and i think people appreciate that how do you think your success has changed the perception that people had of serbia um i i try to be humble about that so i let other people really do their judgment and analysis on that but i

65:57 what's your gut i feel that uh through sport um people get closer to each other sport has power to unite as as nelson mandela used to say and i truly believe in that so the amount of success that our athletes made in the last couple of decades in different sports was really significantly improving the image of our country in the in uh in the world especially in the west

66:28 and i am happy to be part of that team and part of the the the contribution so i you can say that uh that that my success had a positive impact on on reputation of our of of serbia for sure what was it like for you when all of a sudden your name and picture started popping up all around town i don't like that so much to be honest with you i really don't uh i accept it but i don't like it i don't

66:58 like seeing myself everywhere i don't but i i know it's it's part of part of what i do and part of the success and i my my father particularly likes to show off that his son is you know successful and everything and i understand that you know what did he do well he he has you know he has a way of uh of doing that he um just uh above the restaurant that my

67:28 parents are running in that building he he well he has a permission i guess to put like a huge banners of me with different trophies and things that he likes so you can actually see that from highway coming into the city so he does that but um yeah i mean i i just i just laugh about it and i i don't i don't see myself i don't enjoy that so much to be honest but i accept it what what does

67:57 serbia mean to you well serbia is my cradle serbia is the country that allowed me to grow up into the person and tennis player that i am today and and for that i'm internally grateful to serbia um i don't see my country or serbia when you say serbia i don't see it through the lens of politics or anything else i see that i see serbia as a country a mother to all of us that

68:31 you know uh gave us life and gave us opportunity to to grow into people we are today so serbia will forever be my home number one what role did your grandpa play in your life he was a huge support in my life he would be accompanying me to um to the school to my training tennis to

69:01 my outings with friends whatever it is he would be always there and i could always rely on him because he was fully devoted grandpa and when my parents had to work he would he would be there covering and i just i just had a very very special bond with him how much do you enjoy the travel i don't enjoy travel nowadays as much as i used to you know when i when i stay when i travel but i

69:30 stay somewhere for a long time without seeing my kids and my family that's starting to be really difficult for me i i didn't i do not find it as smooth as it used to be how do you handle it well i i handle it fine i mean i i just as i told you you just have to accept things and understand that you know you can't things can't be ideal yeah i think i've experienced enough to know how to handle

69:57 it emotionally mentally to know how to dedicate a time on the court when i'm on the court that's it i'm there nothing else is existing really and and i'm fully immersed into what i have to do um but it's true that uh moment is coming where i'm gonna have to adjust to these things because i i want to be active father i don't want to be father that is always on the road how many languages do you speak

70:21 well uh fluently probably uh like four i would say but i speak italian and and um you know english and and french now um german and spanish so and so i can't communicate in spanish and in german it's nice to to speak more languages i guess and you're continuing to learn yeah i love languages i think it's it's a respectful way as well when you go somewhere to at

70:51 least learn a few phrases in the in that language you pay respect to the people to the country to their culture i think it just makes your experience more pleasurable and more enjoyable now we're headed towards a tennis club partisan where i um where i was practicing and where i grew up and spent most of my childhood days um

71:21 with the tennis record and tennis training it was in that club so we're going to go there and we have not announced ourselves that we're coming so i don't know what's expecting us is i used to spend hours and hours and hours here in this lounge you know playing social games with friends talking and resting and kind of

71:53 anticipating the next training session we would just play the whole summer when it's there is no school we would just travel around serbia play tournaments and we would enjoy it so much and i i wasn't i didn't need anything i wasn't looking for anything else i just that was my life and that was my love and my my passion and i just i just loved it there are some there's some uh of course nicer looking clubs more

72:20 modern clubs around around belgrade and serbia but there is there is probably no club that has a longer tennis tradition and more successful tennis tradition than this club yeah yeah definitely wonderful to be here [Music] [Applause] [Music] coach how's practice what do you think practice was recording the plan

72:52 did it we work specially today on the balance uh transitional weight to the ball full swing and obviously the length so imbalance means that you have to be a little bit like more front for the legs you cannot fall off the ball otherwise the the stroke is not effective enough because if you have too much strength and too much speed into the ball you're too early there and then you you know you cut you are not coordinated well and

73:20 then what happens is you go this way right on the back you hit the ball you hit the ball or you twist your your hips and you're falling back and uh he was talking about the length we worked on specifically uh today on the length of the of the of my shots so trying to get as close as to the baseline as possible from various positions of the chord the follow through needs to go all the

73:46 way in order to actually get that ball to go deeper in the court rather than sometimes stopping here which automatically is going to is going to produce shorter ball for your opponent to dominate and dictate the play in that point if you don't mind uh show how you've tinkered with your serve over the years i did uh you know struggle particularly back in 2010 9 10 i did um

74:18 change my technique for the serve so biomechanically i go there i um my elbow was was was going going too open here so you know so i i i don't know i try to work on the serve i start to have a little bit of an issues with the elbow that's you know the only surgery i had back in 2018 so this this is this is how i if i remember where i don't want to reproduce it

74:45 because i don't want to go back don't get back but i was basically going here and then here so my record had and the entire record was quite far from my head it was not there basically right now it it's it's right there it's where it's supposed to be i make the whole motion but i get here and before i was doing this then i would move my body and then the hand will follow but there was a lot

75:10 of wear and tear on the entire kinetic chain of the whole arm of the back of the hips and i would just kind of pull and i start having issues with with the shoulder with the elbow etc you want to heat the serve last one uh talent right you do definitely have a talent of uh running away from the ball

75:43 let's see you go man come on you haven't done one single exercise man come on what's going on exactly you can do it put me through one of those this is yeah trust me this is uh easier right 100 kg after you let's see what you got yeah you got a nice peck spec right there oh thank you i appreciate that [Music] so let's do one for the for the back it's it's one of the one of the yoga stretches that i like to

76:14 do and let's see if you could uh i'm not quite no not that okay so let's let's no let's let's not yeah let's not do that one let's do a lighter version rotate to the right exhale to your left and you're stretching your your your your hips should move but not not not extremely not like this okay so we'll do the the cat

76:44 and your back exactly exactly exactly exactly it's full full full stretch inhale all the way down your head up feels good you're always smiling it's amazing am i really inspiring very very inspiring to see you smiling all day especially after those serves that you received

77:18 [Music] didn't you want to hit it full speed once just to nail me to see would have made for good television although it was good enough television i was thinking about it i must admit but then i thought you know graham is such a nice guy he came all over all you know from uh all over from the united states to visit me and i have to respect that so um yeah and i didn't want to mess with the

77:50 any uh security medical insurance so no flying back with assistance we don't like exactly just i played it safe i appreciate you no worries don't worry join you're gonna join please this is a little traditional salute at the end of the good day of training and uh usually the newcomer has to say one word that we say that we all say in three to one what is the word but it has to be inspirational can it be success

78:18 success success on three one two three success good job you