Novak Djokovic was on the verge of retirement after the R2 loss against Benoit Paire at the 2018 Miami Masters, says wife Jelena.
The 24-time Grand Slam champion’s darkest day was revealed by his wife Jelena Djokovic, in a recent TikTok discussion with American journalist Graham Bensinger. The Serbian’s wife disclosed that injuries and a split with Coach Andre Agassi took a toll on his husband and almost ended his interest in sport.
“After that match, he wanted to quit,” Jelena Djokovic told Bensinger.
“He gathered all the members of his team and told them: You know what: I’m done, I’m quitting. We cried and told him that he couldn’t do it, that it wasn’t the right time. He didn’t want to play tennis, and he didn’t even want to see a ball pass in front of him.”
Jelena did her part to convince Novak to not give up and continue with the tennis as the legendary Serbian saw her having fun with their kids on court.
“He didn’t want to know anything about it. But I love tennis and I take the kids to the court every day. On the third day Novak arrived. He saw that we were having fun and that it wasn’t a workout like what he had been used to for years.
“Novak asked me if he could play and get a racket, but I refused.
“I started teasing him and told him that he had given up. That it was our turn to play tennis. In the end, he served and said that he felt good, then he came back every day to finally call his coach Marian Vajda and ask him to resume training.”
Djokovic ultimately went for a procedure on his injured elbow and returned to the tour pain-free but it seemed the break from the tennis also provided him an opportunity to reflect back and regain his old form to create history in the next five years.
“With injury and everything that was happening the past couple months, the post-surgery period, me trying to come back to Indian Wells and Miami, and obviously playing well below the desired level, it wasn’t that easy for me to cope with all of that. At the same time it made me I think even more inspired to come back and try to play the way I played today,” Djokovic said after he made a winning return to the ATP Tour at the 2018 Monte Carlo Masters.
The world No. 1 has gone on to add another 12 majors to his name since the day he talked about quitting tennis with more to come in the coming days.