by The irony of Serbia’s dominant victory over Great Britain on Thursday is that Novak Djokovic, the world’s best player, flirted with the possibility of becoming a British citizen when he was still a teenager.
Indeed, Djokovic’s brief flirtation with the Lawn Tennis Association came immediately after he had provided a preview of this week’s action by crushing Britain’s Davis Cup hopes.
In the autumn of 2006, Serbia and Montenegro (the former Yugoslav states were then united) achieved a 3-2 victory at Glasgow’s Braehead Arena. Djokovic won both of his singles matches, beating first Arvind Parmar and then Greg Rusedski.
And here’s another irony: Rusedski had already provided a living example of how the transfer could work. Initially, Rusedski was met with ridicule and skepticism when he transferred his citizenship from Canada in 1995. But the uproar soon died down when he reached the final of the 1997 US Open.
Consider, too, the way Rusedski’s often icy rivalry with Tim Henman created a dramatic narrative of its own, grabbing thousands of column inches and broadcast hours. In 2006, Djokovic was 19 years old, as was the emerging Andy Murray, who was born just a week earlier in 1987. The prospect of a Henman-Rusedski Mark II must have warmed the hearts of marketers.
But what about the obvious and essential problem? Djokovic was not British. He not even a little bit. While Rusedski’s mother came from Dewsbury, in Yorkshire.
The short answer is that those details would have been conveniently overlooked. At the time, International Tennis Federation rules required only three years of residency for a nationality transfer in Davis Cup. Many lower level players have become British for pragmatic reasons, notably the Slovenian Aljaz Bedene (whose ranking reached 43rd in the world).
From Djokovic’s perspective, the motivation was simple: cash. When he was five years old and growing up in the mountain resort of Kopaonik, he was lucky enough to meet Jelena Gencic, a former national champion who had already turned Monica Seles into a world champion. But the financial problem came when he was 12 years old and he needed to train with other talented young people.
In this less digital age, his parents Srdjan and Dijana must have used up their Rolodex. They begged, borrowed and raised expenses for Niki Pilic’s academy near Munich. After such tensions, the prospect of a generously funded programme, based at the LTA’s shiny new headquarters in Roehampton, would have seemed very attractive.
To fill in some of the details, the Telegraph spoke to Roger Draper, who was then just a couple of weeks into his seven-year tenure as LTA chief executive, and whose son Jack played the first game in Thursday’s tie.
“It all started during an official dinner at the Davis Cup tie,” Draper recalled. “Stuart Smith, who was the president of the LTA at the time, came up to me and said, ‘I was just approached by a representative of the Djokovic family. They have this child and they don’t feel like they are getting the support and resources that they need. They are exploring other avenues. What kind of things can you do?
“A few weeks later, we had dinner with Dijana and Srdjan at Stuart’s house in Kent. He said: “We can do what we do for all the other British players: provide a training place and some financial support.” They were simply tennis parents trying to do what was best for their children. However, after that meeting I heard nothing more about it. The curious thing was that a security guard saw them enter through the doors of the Queen’s Club, where the LTA was then based. It turned out that he was Serbian and called a colleague, who in turn called another, and when we realized, he was no longer top secret.”
One possibility is that the Djokovic family was using the LTA as pawns in a broader strategy. This suggestion was later made by Serbia’s 2006 Davis Cup captain Nenad Zimonjic in an interview with Djokovic’s biographer Chris Bowers. As Zimonjic explained: “Maybe it was a way of saying to our country: ‘Listen, you have an incredible talent here, you should help him.’”
It’s also worth remembering that the Djokovic clan had two younger guys to think about. Both Marko and Djordje were considered excellent prospects at the time. Some hotheads even predicted that Djordje would eclipse Novak’s achievements, although neither of the newcomers ended up making a living on the tour.
“I remember driving to Srdjan and Dijana one day in late 2006,” recalls an LTA employee from the time. “We took a look at the NTC, which was then under construction, and I took them to Reed School. [the specialist tennis facility attended by Henman], because that would have been the basis for the two younger children. Srdjan at that time was very confident that he could replicate Novak’s success.
“They were polite but I wouldn’t say they were warm. “They just wanted to know exactly what they were getting out of the deal.”
Djokovic himself talked about the whole thing in a newspaper interview in 2009. “Britain was offering me a lot of opportunities,” he said then, “and they needed someone because Andy was the only one, and he still is. That had to be a disappointment for all the money they invested. But he didn’t need the money as much as before. I had started doing something for myself, enough to allow me to travel by coach, and I said, ‘Why the hell?’ I am Serbian, I am proud to be Serbian; “I didn’t want to ruin it just because another country had better conditions.”
Some might feel that Djokovic has been taking revenge on British tennis ever since. He was the immovable obstacle in Murray’s path for at least a decade, dominating his head-to-head record by 25 wins to 11. And Thursday’s straight-sets victory over Cam Norrie means he is undefeated in the Davis Cup match between the two countries. .
After that match, Djokovic’s furious fight with some outspoken British supporters could be taken as further evidence of bitterness. However, in all likelihood we flatter ourselves if we imagine that Djokovic has the LTA on his mind. One suspects he’s barely thought about his flirtation for a decade (except when asked about it at press conferences). He is the ultimate tennis warrior and he keeps winning.
