A day after winning Wimbledon for the seventh and fourth in a row, Novak Djokovic landed in Belgrade today (Monday) and won the honor of kings. Thousands of enthusiastic fans waited for the new champion in the city’s main square with Serbian flags, pictures of him and GOAT signs (the best of all time).
Excited Djokovic said: “For moments like these it is worth living, I will keep it in my heart for the rest of my life. These are the most beautiful moments in my life, which give me the blessing to continue playing and only thanks to them did I succeed as I did during my career. “This year. I hope this is not the last time we meet here. I felt a little lonely after what happened in Australia, but here in Serbia I felt the love and support from my people.” Djokovic also quoted Kobe Bryant as saying, “My favorite title is my next title.”
Djokovic went on to say: “I see a lot of flags here, a lot of children and young people. It fills me with so much happiness. I have been here on the terrace many times with all our actors: Yelena Jankovic, Anna Ivanovic, Janko Tipserwicz Victor Troitsky, Nenad Zimonich, are all our great champions in a sport in which we did not have a great tradition until recently. In the last 10 and 15 years, tennis has been great and it has strengthened us, given us more incentives to succeed and I believe that Serbian stubbornness was a decisive factor in me being here now. “We have to go through a difficult path, but we always keep seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. You are that light.”
Djokovic is not the only champion to return from Wimbledon today. Elena Rybakina landed today in Nur Sultan in Kazakhstan and also received a warm welcome, including from both her parents who came to greet her after they could not get to the tournament in England to cheer her on in the tense moments.