Djokovic is no less than a national hero in his own country, ever since his first major successes in world tennis more than ten years ago. There are few Serbs who are not in front of the screen when he is on the court. Nole (the Serbian nickname for Novak) is sometimes called King Djokovic. For many Serbs, who for a long time had to endure pariah status as a result of the role that Serbia played in the Balkan wars of the 1990s, that hero status is cathartic.
