"It happened by accident": Novak Djokovic opens up about journey about falling in love with tennis

Former world number one Novak Djokovic has opened up about his journey of falling in love with tennis. The 37-year-old is regarded as the greatest player in the history of men’s tennis in the singles category in the Open era, having won as many as 24 Grand Slam titles.

Djokovic was recently quoted in a report where he spoke about his journey to falling in love with the sport. The Serbian legendary tennis star explained that his affection for the sport is ‘accidental’.

“I grew up on the mountains in my country and that’s where I actually started to play tennis when I was four or five years old,” he said as quoted by Tennis 365. “It happened by accident, even though in life there are no accidents, everything happens for a reason, so I saw a couple of tennis courts that were being made and I was helping the workers to make the tennis courts and I was of course very young and curious. So in return for me bringing them drinks and helping them construct the tennis court, I got free hours when the court were being made. So that’s how I fell in love with this beautiful sport.”

Djokovic has been going through a bit of a lean patch recently. His last ATP title was back in 2023. The Belgrade-born star started the 2025 season on a rather disappointing note as he was forced to retire from the Australian Open after suffering an injury during the quarterfinal against Spain’s Carlos Alcaraz. Interestingly, Djokovic managed to beat the Spaniard despite losing the first set and struggling physically. The former world number one recently returned to the court in the Qatar Open, where he was knocked out after losing in the first set to Italy’s Matteo Berrettini in straight sets with a score of 7-6, 6-2.