Attending a match live or being in the front row at training and in the press room is a lifetime experience. We had the chance to see Novak Djokovic several times at Roland-Garros or Wimbledon. But there, it was he who came to us.
Seeing the greatest player of all time play in the Grand Slam is one thing, seeing him stroll in the shadow of the Parc des Eaux-Vives is another. In Paris or London, it’s the factory. You will rarely see him stopping in the aisles to please fans. In Geneva, in a more familiar setting, “Nole” took a lot of time to sign balls and take photos. The frustrated ones were rare.
Neither were the journalists during the first press conference. The Serbian is more accustomed to spacious main interview room of “Roland” or “Wim” than at the tent of the Gonet Geneva Open. But that day, great lord with his hour and a quarter late, the child from Belgrade delighted: “Novak will be happy to answer your questions in French too,” explained Fabienne Benoit, who represented the ATP at the end of the day. lake.
For 20 minutes, it was a casual discussion. Laurent Ducret, journalist at Keystone-ATS, recalled that “Nole’s” wedding best man, Neven Markovic, had played at Servette in 2015. The tournament press officer even brought a cloth back to the player between two questions. A colleague launched him on the retirement of Rafael Nadal, Djokovic followed up with a five-minute monologue, without interruption. Magic.
24 hours later, the public discovered another side of the man on the court. He saw him complaining, acting like a disjointed puppet at the end of the race, and even deciding on his own to interrupt the match due to the rain. This is also the Djokovic experience.
