Novak Djokovic: girlfriend, wife, children, family?
Here's what we know about the Serbian tennis ace
Created: 05/03/2022, 10:00 am
Novak Djokovic © IMAGO/Marko Metlas
Novak Djokovic is one of eight players who have managed to win every Grand Slam more than once.
Interesting facts about the current dominator of men's tennis.
Munich – What makes up the sporting CV of tennis pro Novak Djokovic, who was born in Belgrade on May 22, 1987, has been known for years and is always part of international headlines and databases:
Novak Djokovic was number 1 in the ATP world rankings for 361 days in a row.
Novak Djokovic has finished the tennis season as number 1 for more years than any other player: 2011, 2012, 2014, 2015, 2018, 2020, 2021
Novak Djokovic has won 20 Grand Slam titles: nine times Australia (record), twice French Open, six times Wimbledon and three times the US Open.
Novak Djokovic – the French Open 2022
According to tournament director Amélie Mauresmo, nothing should stand in the way of Novak Djokovic's participation in the French Open in 2022 - despite his refusal to be vaccinated against the corona virus.
At the Australian Open earlier this year, Djokovic was expelled after a long legal dispute and was unable to attack his 21st Grand Slam title.
Due to far-reaching corona easing in France, however, vaccination is no longer a prerequisite for participating in a sporting event like the French Open.
What Djokovic could possibly still fail to do at Roland Garros is a mysterious illness that Djokovic contracted on April 24, 2022 after his 2-6, 7-6, 0-6 final defeat at the
Serbia Open
said: "I can't tell if it's from the illness I had a few weeks ago or not.
... It wasn't Corona ... I don't want to go into the details.
But it affected my metabolism in such a way that I had to get treatment.”
Novak Djokovic – his private life
He is an absolute superstar and has won everything there is to win in recent years.
But who is behind him, has his back and supports him and his career as a tennis pro?
Answer to this question: First and foremost his wife.
In 2005, at the age of 18, Novak met Jelena Ristic.
Since then they have been a couple, they got engaged in 2013, a year later they married on July 10, 2014 shortly after winning the Wimbledon Championships for the second time and had son Stefan (2014) and daughter Tara (2017).
The wedding celebration took place on a small island in Montenegro, which is part of the Sveti Stefan resort.
The couple had previously been married in a small family circle in a religious ceremony by two Serbian Orthodox priests.
Several celebrities also attended the wedding of the Serbian tennis star.
This included his then coach Boris Becker with his then wife Lilly.
In the years after the wedding there were repeated rumors of marital crises, and there was even speculation about an imminent divorce.
Novak Djokovic repeatedly vehemently contradicted these rumours.
Novak Djokovic - who is Jelena Ristic?
Jelena Ristic was born on June 17, 1986 in Belgrade.
There she grew up with her parents Miomir and Vera Ristic and with her older sister Marija, with whom she now works closely professionally.
Today, Jelena Djokovic works as an influencer and runs her own website, on which she publishes articles on health, self-optimization, books and psychology, among other things.
In addition, Novak Djokovic's wife is dedicated to the Djokovic Foundation, which aims to support disadvantaged children in their early development phase between birth and eight years of age.
The foundation primarily focuses on supporting projects in Serbia, but is also active in Australia, Florida, Croatia and Bosnia.
Novak Djokovic - his family
His father Srdjan Djokovic and mother Dijana Djokovic had two more children, Marko and Djordje, after Novak.
Novak Djokovic's parents supported his sporting career from the start.
Among other things, they enabled him to attend Nikola Pilic's Munich Tennis Academy.
Mother Dijana once said openly:
"We neglected his two younger brothers because we often spontaneously aligned our plans with Novak." At that time, the parents ran a pizzeria and a boutique in the Kopaonik ski area to earn enough money for their children and Novak Djokovics' career.
To finance his career, Srdjan even borrowed money from illegal gangs.
Even today, both are still the driving forces in the “Djokovic clan”: Dijana Djokovic is even portrayed time and again as the actual boss who pulls the strings.
When her son was asked a critical question about how he was dealing with his corona disease during a press conference, Dijana whispered something to her youngest son Djordje, who then stopped the press conference on Dijana's instructions.
"I didn't leave his side for ten years.
We received no support at all wherever we went," he said in a 2016 interview with
Newsweek
magazine .
"I was Novak's mother, father, coach, physio - everything!"
Novak Djokovic - not everyone knows that about the superstar
In 2014, Novak Djokovic published a book on this topic entitled "Siegernahrung: gluten-free nutrition for top performance".
The Serbian tennis pro has a restaurant chain in his home country.
It is called "Novak Café + Restaurant".
His chain of restaurants serves donkey milk cheese – a specialty in Serbia and one of the most expensive cheeses in the world.
In April 2016, Novak Djokovic opened a vegan restaurant in Monaco.
Djokovic is committed to socially disadvantaged people and offers them the opportunity to eat for free in his restaurants.
In addition, Novak and Jelena Djokovic opened the vegan restaurant “eqvita” in Monaco in 2016.
Djokovic is considered a talent for languages.
In addition to Serbian, he is fluent in several other foreign languages: English, Italian, French, Spanish, German, Slovak.
According to estimates by
Statista
and
Vermögensmagazin
, he will have total assets of around 150 to 180 million euros in 2022.
In 2021 alone, the athlete's income was estimated at 20 million euros.
His fortune consists of various prize money and lucrative advertising income.
Its top sponsors include Peugeot, Lacoste and watchmaker Seiko.
Around ten million people follow Djokovic on Instagram.
When Serbia was bombed by NATO in the Kosovo conflict in 1999, Novak lived with his younger brothers Marko and Djordje with his grandfather Vladimir near Belgrade.
"The basement is practically where we lived," Novak recalled in a BBC documentary.
In the bunker they would have sought protection from the bombs that fell from the sky almost every night.
