Novak Djokovic's US Open Part Of The Season

It's been some time since last post here at Novak's fan blog, now it's the time to look back on Novak's progress in the last 4 months. Novak's career was in co-relationship with a group of youngsters from Belgrade Serbia who took the world of tennis by surprised to come from a small country with not great tennis tradition.

Other youngsters from that group include WTA tennis players Ana Ivanovic and Jelena Jankovic. They were like a group of runners constantly changing leads through the course of the race at the start of their pro tennis careers in chase to World #1 position, as one of them first broke out into the Top 100, other 2 would follow, then into the Top 20, Top 10...

At the time of being, the last Grand Slam of the season, US Open, is underway. Currently Ana Ivanovic is WTA World #1 and Jelena Jankovic WTA World #2 with Ana and Jelena changing places at the top of WTA rankings since Wimbledon, while Novak remained where he was this time last year ranked ATP #3.

Novak didn't follow Ana's and Jelena's progress up the rankings now being so close to #1 position. After a dream start of the season when Novak won first career Grand Slam title, followed by the title at the season's first Masters Series tournament, Novak did not improve in his play and up the rankings.

Having a career of constant progress, as if Novak was 'stagnating' for the past 5 months. We should never forget Novak from his junior and first pro career days, that gutsy player who had only one goal in mind, to overthrow Roger Federer, at the time ATP #1 and by some possible the best player in tennis history.

Last year was awesome for Novak, the beginning of this year promised fulfillment of ultimate tennis dreams, it seemed nothing could stop Novak on the way to ATP #1. Then came a small party time in Los Angeles celebrating the Indian Wells title and a huge shock few days later at Master Series Miami, loss in first match against a player ranked outside of Top #100, as Novak said prior to the start of the match he knew little about his opponent.

Novak slipped in Miami when no one saw it coming, all eyes were on how fast Novak could reach Roger up in the rankings, could it happen even before Roland Gaross, by Wimbledon, US Open or at least by the time of season's finale at Masters Series Cup in Shanghai.

After Miami, Novak had decent results according to ATP #3 reputation, though not spectacular results. Novak featured in Quarterfinals/Semifinals/Finals of Masters Series Tournaments, Semifinal of Roland Gaross, only R64 in Wimbledon, Bronze medal at the Olympics. Novak did not won anything which is a virtue of a champion, he sticked around while Rafael Nadal became new ATP #1.

Success at US Open can still make this season be up to expectations, it would give him a chance to finish the year ahead of Roger Federer at ATP #2 position. Novak has already won $3.5 million in prize money and this will be his most successful season in won prize money, he is currently ranked #2 in ATP Race...

Prior to the beginning of the season, many agreed that Australian Open and Wimbledon titles were reserved for Roger, Roland Gaross for Rafael and US Open for Novak. Novak doesn't seem like a steaming machine entering US Open with months of no won title, but it makes US Open title be that greater challenge.

Today Novak will play in Round 3 against a player ranked outside of Top 100, there were no greater problems for Novak to conduct wins in Round 1 and 2, he is in pretty decent form. Novak can use the opportunity of Roger not playing the perfect tennis from last seasons.

Rafael has had fantastic season behind him, 2 Grand Slams won, including Olympic Gold 10 days ago, and may not have enough fire in him needed to win US Open, as much as Rafael has improved his play on fast surfaces, US Open's hard court suits Novak the best.

We hope for Novak to be in good health (had smaller problem twisting his ankle in round 1) and win the US Open. Ana and Jelena have already tasted the flavour of being World #1, now it's on Novak to match their achievement, if not by the end of this year than maybe in the fist part of the 2009 season, the US Open title is the best place from where to start that quest.

I Take A Pause, Novak Continues To ATP World #1

Due to a number of reasons, I won't be writing the blog at usual frequent pace. Through the blogging pause, take a look at video of Novak winning first Grand Slam title with many more to come. I'll be here to post the video of Novak winning his second Grand Slam title somewhere in the near future :)

Novak Djokovic Remains ATP #3

In this morning's, Monday April 14th, ATP list Novak Djokovic remained at #3 position with 4785 points. Roger Federer is at #1 with 6600 points, Roger Federer at #2 with 5930 points, and Nikolay Davydenko at #4 with 3175.

Novak still leads in the Race with 331 points while Rafael is at #2 with 249 and Nikolay at #3 with 191 points. Novak decided not to participate in Estoril played this week where he won title in 2007. Novak will next be on court in Monte Carlo (21-18 April) played on red clay for the total prize money $2.270.000.

As for the rumor we covered in last post about Maria Sharapova being related to Novak on personal level, it most likely is a false info, I participated in one forum on the Internet and most people there stated that the given pictures of Maria and Novak were taken on March 26th during Sony Ericsson Party (official event).

The only reason I mentioned that rumor is that most news agancies covered it as well, though those kind of rumors where some website would turn things around to drow publicity are not worth everyone's time, as a celebrity Novak will always be a target of rumors.

Novak Djokovic And Maria Sharapova In Doubles Offcourt

The biggest news after first 3 months of the season seemed to be that Roger Federer has not won anything yet. At the beginning of April, even bigger news, or news of the year, could be... well I'm not the one who is spreading gossip around but since everyone started talking about... rumors say Novak Djokovic and Maria Sharapova may be a couple.

Swedish site dedicated to tennis (tennistalk.com) published the above picture of Novak and Maria at a party in Miami. Here can be seen video of Maria and Novak leaving the club together on the back seat of Maria's cars while her agent was driving: http://x17video.com/celebrity_video/while_you_were_sleeping/maria_sharipova_at_night.php

This all is just a rumor, since this Novak's fan blog covers everything related to Novak, I covered the story or rumor whatever it is at the moment. Tennistalk.com said more that Novak enjoyed himself at the Opium Garden in Miami on March 28th with Maria and him not leaving the club until very late (later than midnight).

Tennistalk.com goes a step further presuming that Novak's late night partying is the cause of Novak's most shocking defeat ever since he entered Top 10, loss at Miami Open where he was defending champion in the first match against World #122 Kevin Anderson. Tennistalk.com could surely be right about that, no one saw that loss coming especially after Novak won Indian Wells a week earlier.

Tennistalk.com states more: 'It also appeared that he had been drinking alcohol even though we do not have any pictures of it, just our eye-witnesses'. Since there were no pictures or video, we will discard this fact being too much of a speculation.

Being on the subject, let us look back at how Novak - Maria connection started. Novak's impersonations of other players, one of the funniest things inside and outside of the world of sports last year, brought to Novak great popularity with the fans and media, ATP official website calls him 'the entertaining Serb'.

Novak's most successful impersonation was of Maria Sharapova. Maria commentated Novak's impersonation of her with a smile saying if she is to do Novak impersonation it would be a very boring one since all she would do is tap the ball before the serve for infinite period of time (referring to the fact that Novak taps the ball against the ground too many times before serving).

Novak's impersonation of other player, especially of Maria, became so popular that wherever Novak played fans and hosts at the tournament asked him to do the impersonations for everyone's enjoyment.

Maria than said that Novak is offering nothing new and that his constant impersonations of her are becoming boring. Novak also felt he done the impersonations too many times but, like it could have been seen in the video we posted in February, fans and hosts of the tournaments started insisting on Novak to do impersonations to make everyone smile.

Novak had and still has a girlfriend he is with for some time now. Maria, to my knowledge, is single and I don't recall her having a boyfriend in recent year(s). Did Maria started having sympathies towards Novak after his first impersonations of her stays unclear.

Just, remarkable thing happen during US Open in August/September 2007. Maria lost early in Round 3 but did not go home to Florida and stayed in NYC to follow US Open later matches that 'concidently' Novak played and went all the way to the Final.

Not just attending Novak's game, Maria was sitting in the Novak's stuff box seats, along with Novak's family and coaches. Some may say that many celebrities were in the Novak's stuff box seats including one of the most famous American actors Robert De Niro, so no wonder Maria was there too consider Maria is Russian and Novak is Serb, 2 nations closely related.

Amazing was Maria's behavior while sharing the box seats along with Novak's family. Maria, a donghty tennis winning machine on court, seemed like the nicest girl around every mother could wish for her son, her make up and clothing was measurable, she was smiling and shining as if she was enjoying being almost a part of the family.

In the following months nothing happened on Novak - Maria subject, Novak was the same with his girlfriend and Maria single. At Hopman Cup in early January some talks started about Serena Williams having a small crush on Novak (I mean how good impersonator Novak really is, they say you won a half of women's heart by knowing how to make her smile:).

In the Hopman Cup final match USA-Serbia, Serena was all in smiles and at some extent it made me wish to check if Serena has a boyfriend so I could cover that rumor in full. Hopman Cup passed with no breaking stories or rumors to follow.

The sea was still all until March 28 and a party at Opium Club in Miami and today, April 10th, that tennistalk.com published the newest rumor public. At the time of being, Novak is resting and will skip Estoril starting next week while Maria is playing at Amelia Island where she has won today against A. Medina Garrigues and tomorrow will play in the Quarterfinals.

By the way, Novak and Maria are the same age, born in 1987, Maria in April (19th, next Saturday), Novak in May.

Novak Djokovic Presents Monography

Novak Djokovic promoted his monography 'My First Grand Slam' on Saturday, April 06, in his home town Belgrade, during that occasion hosted in the French cultural center, he expressed hopes the readers will enjoy reading his first book.

Novak: 'Winning Australian Open in January is the biggest success of my career, fulfillment of the dream. On top of that, I had the prevelage to do it already at the age of 20, I won over many good tennis players, among them the best one (Roger Federer)'.

Novak: 'Even now when I look at this book, I get chills and it brings me back to the central court in Melbourne'. Novak excused himself to the French ambasador for the lack of knowledge of French language: 'Never mind, the time will come for me to work on it as I plan to win Roland Gaross as well'.

The French ambasador Teral said Novak is the picture that Frenchmen have about Serbia - young ,dynamic and with perspective, he added: 'I have two wishes, for Novak to win Roland Gaross and for Serbia to join European Union'.

During the conference, Novak signed his monography for the fans. The book costs 2650 dinars (~30€, $50). The publisher is 'Family Sport' which is partly owned by Novak and where Novak's father Srdjan is the editor.

In the news around ongoing Miami Open, later today, Saturday April 06, Rafael Nadal and Nikolay Davydenko will play for the title in the Final match, Rafael won over Thomas Berdych and Nikolay against Andy Roddick in the Semifinals.

Video: Novak Djokovic Book Presentation April 04 2008

Video: Novak Djokovic In Kosovska Mitrovica