Djokovic: “Impossible to be friends with Federer and Nadal. In Australia held in prison together with war refugees”

Federer and I have never been friends. Word of Novak Djokovic. “Between rivals it is not possible to be, but we have never been enemies. I’ve always had respect, he was one of the greatest of all time, but I’ve never been close to him.” And Nadal? “He’s only a year older than me, we’re both Geminis, at first we went to dinner together, twice. But even with him friendship is impossible. Thanks to him and Federer I grew up and became who I am. This will unite us forever, I feel great gratitude towards them. Nadal is part of my life, in the last 15 years I’ve seen more of him than my mom.” The Serbian tennis player told Corriere della Sera, in which he also spoke of the imitations: “I have never imitated someone to offend him, and then they ask me, like Lea Pericoli in Rome in 2009 in front of Nadal. I imitated Rafa because he had won, if I had won I would have thought: if I imitate him after I beat him, Rafa will kill me”.

“In Australia held in prison with war refugees”

Djokovic also spoke about vaccines and the accusations of being novax: “I’m not novax and I never said I was. I am pro-choice: I defend the freedom of choice”. Then, on the exclusion from the Australian Open: “The place where they kept me? A prison. I couldn’t open the windows. I found kids, war refugees who had been there for a very long time. My case served to shed light on them, almost all of them were released. A young Syrian had been there for nine years. He is now in America, when I go back there this summer I want to invite him to the Us Open ”.

The encounter with a wolf when he was 10 years old

In the interview Djokovic told of when, as a child, he found himself alone in front of a wolf: “I was alone in the forest, I must have been ten years old and I met a wolf. I felt a deep fear. We looked at each other for ten seconds, the longest of my life. I felt a very strong sensation, a connection of soul, of spirit. I never believed in coincidences and that wolf wasn’t one either.” He also has about his childhood when his father got into debt: “He went to the loan sharks. Criminals. They asked him for 12.5% ​​interest. Then they added: are you in a hurry? Then 15%”.

The meeting with his wife Jelena

This was followed by a meeting with his wife Jelena: “In a tennis club in Belgrade. I was 16, she was 17 and she was with another tennis player. He won a tournament, lifted his shirt and on the tank top he wrote: Jelena I love you. We teased him but inside I thought: who is this Jelena? I didn’t take her away from him, they had already split up”.