"One of the most traumatic experiences and images that I had in my childhood and has stayed with me to this day" - Novak Djokovic recalls horrifying memory during war in Serbia
Novak Djokovic's experience of war in Serbia as a 12-year-old changed his life in many ways. The tennis legend opened up on the toughest days of his life, recalling a specific incident that he calls among the most traumatic ones of his life, which he still vividly remembers.
Djokovic and his family were among those affected by the war in Serbia back in 1999, shortly before he turned 12. During the early days of the war in his home country, the 22-time Grand Slam champion remembers the constant bombing of homes and facilities in his locality and how he and his family narrowly escaped the worst.
Speaking during a recently-released interview with Graham Bensinger, Djokovic looked back in time and revealed an incident from the first few days of the war as bombs were continually dropped from planes.
"That's one of the most traumatic experiences and images that I had in my childhood and has stayed with me to this day," Djokovic said.
On that day in 1999, the Serbian and his family were woken up by a massive explosion next to their home. Adding to the tension, his mom, Dijana, hit her head during the chaos and fell to the floor in an unconscious state. While his father, Srdjan, thankfully managed to wake his mother up and help her back to her feet, they still had a lot to do to be safe from the bombing.
"It was us crying because of the bombs and because mom is not reacting, and my dad was there like, 'What is happening?' Luckily my dad manages to help my mom back to her normal self as much as she could and we collect our stuff quickly, take the necessities and go out," the Serbian said.
As they rushed outside their house to find shelter, Novak himself slipped and fell and saw a plane flying right above him once he turned around. The Serb stated that he will never be able to forget the incident.
"My dad was carrying my brothers and my mom was running with stuff and I slipped and I fell. As I turned around, I looked over the building, and I see these stealth planes just flying and dropping things, and the ground is shaking," he said.
The nine-time Australian Open champion has been affected by the incident ever since but is grateful that his loved ones and family members came out on the better side of the days of the war in Serbia.
"We were lucky that in our families we did not lose anyone that was very close to us. There are a lot of people that lost many close people in their lives and that's a different level of suffering and trauma. I can't even imagine the pain they had to bear to go through that," he further expressed.
"I don't think it's good for anybody to be stuck in hatred, anger, rage" - Novak Djokovic
Novak Djokovic used the anger he carried from the days of the war in Serbia to channel it into his tennis career. Quite evidently, that has helped him as he is now one of the greatest players of all time.
However, the Serbian player revealed that he has overcome the emotions of hate and anger over the years, even though he will never forget those days.
"I really don't have this emotion anymore. I will not forget (the war) and a lot of people will never forget what happened, but at the same time, I don't think it's good for anybody to be stuck in the emotion of hatred, anger, rage, because someone destroyed your home or killed your close ones. I can only imagine the amount of pain when you lose your closed ones," he explained.
"There is no justification for war...It is an ultimate cruelty...I worked on myself and those emotions to forgive...How can you be fueled by anything more than love and love is forgiveness," he added.
Djokovic: War in Serbia "has helped me to shape me into the person and tennis player that I am today, to have more hunger to work, train, build myself so I can show to the world that kid from war-torn country can be the best in a global sport."
via tennisworldusa.org/tennis/news/No… https://t.co/K5BTRqeiBw
Djokovic's talents as a tennis player were spotted by agents at a very young age and he was offered British nationality. While the offer, which came a couple of years after the war, was very tempting by the Serb's own admission, his parents turned it down and the family continued to live in Serbia.
The seven-time Wimbledon champion and 21-time Major champion is regarded as arguably the greatest sportsperson ever from the country.